Cameron meets Trump in Florida before talks with Blinken
UK foreign secretary David Cameron held a meeting with Donald Trump in Florida before he met top Biden officials in Washington, DC during his US trip.
Lord Cameron is visiting the US to press Congress to pass the blocked aid package for Ukraine. He will also discuss Israel’s war in Gaza on Tuesday.
It was the first meeting between a senior British minister and the former Republican president since he left office in 2021. However, the Foreign Office appeared to downplay the significance of their meeting with Mr Trump, who is seeking to return to the Oval Office with the elections in November.
“It is standard practice for ministers to meet with opposition candidates as part of their routine international engagement,” the spokesperson said.
The foreign secretary flew to Florida on Monday night to meet Mr Trump at his Mar-a-Lago residence while Republican lawmakers in Congress have been blocking a $60bn (over £47.5bn) military aid package for Ukraine amid its two-year-long war with Russia.
Lord Cameron will hold talks with US secretary of state Antony Blinken and key figures across Congress on Tuesday to call them to “change the narrative on Ukraine this year” and release the funding.
He will tell the American leaders that the “success for Ukraine and failure for [Vladimir] Putin are vital for American and European security”.
“This will show that borders matter, that aggression doesn’t pay and that countries like Ukraine are free to choose their own future,” the Foreign Office said.
Mr Trump and other Republicans within the US Congress have blocked the latest tranche of the package to Ukraine for months. The Republicans in the House of Representatives have demanded concessions on border security before supporting the bill.
The former president, who has claimed he would end the war in Ukraine “in one day”, pledged to cut support to Ukraine and push it into negotiations if he won a second term.
The visit comes as the British foreign secretary has previously criticised Mr Trump and angered firebrand Trump loyalist Marjorie Taylor-Greene, who responded to him by saying the foreign secretary can “kiss my a**”.
In 2015, Mr Cameron described the former Republican president’s “Muslim ban” travel policy as “divisive, stupid and wrong” and criticised his disagreement with Ukraine aid as “not a sensible approach”.
Ms Taylor-Greene’s response came to an article penned by Lord Cameron, cautioning the US against mirroring “the weakness displayed against Hitler in the 1930s”.
The Foreign Office said the talks with Mr Blinken and other Biden administration officials will also focus on the ceasefire in Gaza and the delivery of greater quantities of aid.
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