UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron meets Donald Trump to shore up support for Ukraine

UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron on Monday met former US President Donald Trump to seek his support for the war effort in Ukraine.

Cameron is on a visit to the United States in which he is meeting Republican Party leaders to convince them to support Ukraine in the war with Russia. He will also meet US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and discuss the ongoing wars in Gaza and Ukraine.

Cameron’s visit comes at a time when a far-right section of the Republican Party loyal to Trump has blocked the $60 billion aid package to Ukraine. Trump has been critical of the US support to Ukraine and has instead hinted at an isolationist foreign policy in case he wins the presidential election later this year.

Cameron holds ‘productive’ talks with Trump on Ukraine

Cameron held a “productive” meeting with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, according to the UK Foreign Office (FO).

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The FO further said in a statement that it is standard practice for ministers to meet opposition party’s candidates during their visits.

“Ahead of his visit to Washington, the Foreign Secretary met former president Trump in Florida. It is standard practice for ministers to meet with opposition candidates as part of their routine international engagement,” said FO in a statement.

In his meeting with Trump, Cameron hoped to persuade the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee in this year’s presidential election to drop his opposition to a $60 billion aid package to Ukraine that his loyalist Republican lawmakers have blocked in the US House of Representatives, according to a report in The Guardian.

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The report further said that while Cameron will meet Blinken and discuss the future of military alliance NATO, the common challenge from China, and a ceasefire in Gaza, the “key goal” of the visit is to “shift Republican thinking in Congress on the relevance of the threat posed by Russia to American interests”.

Ahead of his visit, Cameron had said that Ukraine’s success and failure of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war are “vital for American and European security”. He further said that the alternative would “only encourage Putin in further attempts to redraw European borders by force” and would further embolden other strategic rivals China, Iran, and North Korea.

Trump’s view of Ukraine has spooked Europe & NATO

In a sharp deviation from the Biden administration and much of Europe, Trump has been rather dismissive of continued support of Ukraine and the defeat of Russia in the war. Instead, Trump believes that Ukraine should surrender two provinces to Russia in exchange for an end to the war.

A report in The Washington Post said that Trump believes that Ukraine should surrender the Donbas and Crimea regions to Russia. The Donbas is the eastern region of Ukraine comprising Donetsk and Luhansk provinces where much of the fighting has taken place since the beginning of the Russian invasion in February 2022. Crimea is the region of Ukraine that Russia invaded and annexed in 2014 and has controlled since. Trump’s plan would mean a formal surrender of Crimea to Russia.

Moreover, Trump has also indicated that he could also reduce the US commitment to NATO if he becomes the president again. Such an attitude has led to efforts in Europe and NATO to ‘Trump-proof’ the support to Ukraine. One proposal floated by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg seeks to come up with a five-year 100-billion-euro fund to support Ukraine in the war with Russia.

Officials were quoted by AFP as saying that Stoltenberg’s proposal “could help insulate the flow of weaponry to Ukraine from a potential return of Donald Trump to the White House in November”.