Today, in a speech at the US Institute of Peace in Washington DC, Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt will argue that the values underpinning the international rules-based system that has kept us safe for decades are under threat. Only by working together can like-minded, free, democratic states like the UK and the US maintain our collective economic and diplomatic strength, fundamental to ensuring that our values and freedoms are defended for decades more to come. But we must get our own houses in order to rise to meet these twenty first century challenges.
On Russia in particular, Mr Hunt is expected to say: “[Russia’s] aggressive and malign behaviour undermines the international order that keeps us safe. Of course we must engage with Moscow, but we must also be blunt: Russia’s foreign policy under President Putin has made the world a more dangerous place.
“And today the United Kingdom asks its allies to go further by calling on the European Union to ensure its sanctions against Russia are comprehensive, and that we truly stand shoulder to shoulder with the US. That means calling out and responding to transgressions with one voice whenever and wherever they occur, from the streets of Salisbury to the fate of Crimea.”
Hunt will make this speech as part of his first visit to the US as Foreign Secretary where he will also talk to the US Administration about Iran, DPRK, Syria, Yemen, the Middle East Peace Process and other major international issues. While in Washington the Foreign Secretary will meet Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, other high-ranking members of the US administration, and senior congressional figures.
The Foreign Secretary will then travel on to New York where he will address the United Nations Security Council on the joint work of the UK and the US and others to fight Daesh. He will also meet the UN Secretary General, António Guterres to discuss a number of humanitarian issues as well as reform of the United Nations.
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