It Is Right To Stop Putin’s Aggression': Cameron Pleads With U.S. Republicans To Back Extra Funding For Ukraine

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his British counterpart David Cameron, on Tuesday urged Congress to approve supplemental military aid for Ukraine after talks in Washington, TURAN's U.S. correspondent reports.

During a joint press conference at the State Department, Blinken said President Biden's supplemental request was “urgent” and should be taken to a vote “as quickly as possible”.

Cameron agreed, saying that victory for Ukraine is “vital' for American and European security. “I just come here as a great friend and believer in this country and a believer that it’s profoundly in your interest, and your security, and your future, and the future of your partners, to release this money and let it through,” he emphasized, insisting he did not want to “lecture” Republican politicians who have blocked the package, but warned about the consequences of failing to support Ukraine’s fight against Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

"Above all, we know what’s right for us. We know that it is right to stop Putin’s aggression," he said, adding that countries including China, Iran and North Korea would be looking intently at how much support the U.S. was actually prepared to give to its allies.

Ahead of his visit to Washington, Cameron met former President Donald Trump in Florida yesterday. While it is standard practice for British foreign ministers to meet with opposition candidates as part of their routine international engagement, Cameron and Trump refrained from posting any photo of their dinner in Trump’s Florida base, Mar-a-Lago, where the top UK diplomat said he had urged the former president to recognise that it was in American interest that Putin not be rewarded for seizing land from Ukraine.

The Trump campaign said in a statement that he and Cameron talked about "the upcoming U.S. and UK elections, policy matters specific to Brexit, the need for NATO countries to meet their defense spending requirements, and ending the killing in Ukraine."

Cameron insisted during the press conference that by the time of a NATO summit in Washington this July, plans would be in place for every Alliance member to reach or pass the target of defence spending.

As for his attempt to persuade Trump to permit the Republicans in Congress to push through $60bn in military aid for Ukraine, it appeared to have failed after the British foreign secretary was not even granted a meeting with congressional speaker Mike Johnson, who could in theory put the package to a vote.

Johnson reportedly instead found himself assailed by hard-right Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who renewed her threats of a snap vote to remove him from office for even countenancing a Ukraine aid vote.