UK’s Cameron says Ukraine aid in US interest

17 Jan, 2024

DAVOS: British Foreign Secretary David Cameron appealed Wednesday for US lawmakers to approve new assistance to Ukraine, saying it would serve US interests not to “appease” Russia.

President Joe Biden’s administration at the end of 2023 allocated a last batch of military aid to Ukraine as it struggles to persuade lawmakers of the rival Republican Party to approve some $61 billion in new funding.

“Fundamentally, there is a majority of Congress in support. We just need to find it,” Cameron told reporters at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

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The former Conservative prime minister said that Ukraine’s war affects Europe but is “about American security, too”.

“History demonstrates to us that if you appease an aggressor in Europe, the aggressor comes back for more,” he said, in an unsubtle comparison of Russian President Vladimir Putin to Hitler.

“And when the aggressor comes back for more, the price you eventually pay in your own troops and the cost for your own country, the price gets higher and higher,” he said.

“I think that’s the argument we need to make in the United States.”

Republicans, who control the House of Representatives, have tied up support for Ukraine assistance to push Biden to tighten measures against migrants seeking to enter the United States.

While many Republicans support Ukraine, former president Donald Trump, the front-runner for the party’s nomination to challenge Biden in November, has been loudly dismissive of aid to Ukraine, saying it is wasteful and predicting Russia will triumph.

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