Sturgeon hits the US selfie trail
NICOLA Sturgeon posed for photos with Nancy Pelosi as she used her taxpayer-funded trip to the US to promote her bid to tear Scotland out of the UK.
The First Minister also met US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman on the first day of her visit to Washington DC.
Miss Sturgeon was welcomed to the US Capitol by House speaker Miss Pelosi. The pair previously met at last year’s Cop 26 climate talks in Glasgow.
The First Minister also took several swipes at former US President Donald Trump, a bitter rival of Miss Pelosi. When asked later how the US could help Europe in ensuring energy security, Miss Sturgeon joked: ‘Don’t re-elect Trump.’
Addressing an audience in the US capital, she claimed that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had ‘strengthened my conviction’ that an independent Scotland would be a member of the Nato defence alliance.
Miss Sturgeon said EU and Nato membership would be a ‘cornerstone’ of an independent Scotland’s security policy – and that it would ‘contribute to the collective security of our neighbours and allies’.
But she made no reference to her party’s opposition to nuclear weapons and desire to remove Trident from Scotland’s waters as soon as possible in the event of independence.
Her comments about Nato came as one of her Green ministers, Patrick Harvie, insisted that an independent Scotland should stay out of the defence alliance.
When details of Miss Sturgeon’s visit to the US were confirmed last week, opponents accused her of trying to ‘promote independence at the taxpayers’ expense’. In an article in The Times yesterday, the First Minister said that promoting Scotland overseas should be seen as ‘part of the job’.
But she suffered a blow ahead of her trip when the Brookings Institution, the US think tank hosting her keynote address, branded Miss Sturgeon’s plan to hold an independence referendum next year ‘weird’ in light of international events.
Scottish Tory constitution spokesman Donald Cameron said: ‘This speech by Nicola Sturgeon betrayed her naivety, and the SNP’s weakness, on international security. She was keen to talk up how an independent Scotland would help the collective security of the West, yet conveniently forgot to mention that her party is committed to removing the UK’s nuclear deterrent.’