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British Foreign Secretary David Cameron held talks in Florida with Donald Trump, as London pushes to win support from the former president’s Republican allies in Congress for more aid to Ukraine.
Cameron’s talks with Trump, the presidential candidate, come ahead of his appointment in Washington for meetings starting Tuesday with Biden administration officials and Republican and Democratic lawmakers. He said before the trip that he would urge House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Trump ally, to approve funding for Ukraine, although there are no plans for a meeting between the two, according to people familiar with the matter.
Johnson refused to use his powers to call a vote in the lower house of Congress on new security funds, including $60 billion in aid for Ukraine, after pressure from Trump and far-right lawmakers of the Republican Party.
The Republican freeze on new funding from the United States comes amid fears that Russian invading forces will take advantage of Ukraine’s dwindling firepower and slowing Western munitions supplies to seize more territory.
Johnson is looking for a politically viable path to move funds through Congress without inflaming Trump’s hardline allies and other Republicans who have taken a more isolationist stance on U.S. foreign policy.
Cameron had already indicated he would pressure Johnson over the Ukrainian funds, but securing Trump’s support first will be crucial.
“America needs to do this. [The funds are] blocked in Congress. President Johnson can make it happen in Congress. I will see him next week and tell him we need that money, Ukraine needs that money,” Cameron said last week after a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels.
“American security, European security, British security is at stake in Ukraine, and they need our help,” he added.
NATO allies have warned Johnson and the Republican Party that failure to help Kiev could be devastating for Ukraine, echoing messages from Democratic President Joe Biden and Ukraine supporters from both parties in Congress.
The British government provided few details about the Cameron-Trump meeting, other than confirming it and stressing that “it is standard practice for ministers to meet opposition candidates as part of their routine international engagement.”
Cameron resigned as British prime minister in 2016, shortly after the UK voted to leave the EU – a vote praised by Trump, who won election as US president the same year.
Cameron’s meeting with Trump also comes as embassies in Washington begin to devote more diplomatic energy to Trump’s inner circle. Trump holds a narrow polling lead over Biden in this year’s presidential race.
With financing for Ukraine in doubt and concerns of a U.S. turn toward greater isolationism if Trump wins the November election, Western allies have been looking for ways to “Trump-proof” part of the architecture of security that was born while Biden was in office.
NATO has begun examining plans for a $100 billion fund that would give the alliance control of military aid in Kiev rather than Washington, which oversees the Ramstein Group to coordinate arms transfers.
In February, Trump said at a campaign rally that Russia could do “whatever the hell it wants” to NATO allies who failed to meet their defense spending goals – comments that drew a strong rebuke from NATO members.