LONDON — Britain’s top diplomat, David Cameron, issued a fresh plea for the U.S. to agree more military funding to Ukraine as he heads to Washington to once more lobby senior Republicans.
In a joint Daily Telegraph op-ed Monday with his French counterpart Stéphane Séjourné, Cameron warned that if Russian President Vladimir Putin triumphs in Ukraine, “we all lose.”
And the pair said: “The costs of failing to support Ukraine now will be far greater than the costs of repelling Putin. The world is watching — and will judge us if we fail.”
Cameron’s words come ahead of a face-to-face meeting with U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson this week. Johnson’s House Republicans are deeply divided about providing military support to Ukraine and have yet to pass on a $60 billion aid package for the country which the Senate approved nearly two months ago. Johnson himself faces a vote to oust him.
Cameron last week urged European foreign ministers to “get on the phone” to Johnson in a bid “to get that supplemental through” after a two-day NATO foreign ministers’ meeting.
“Congress does listen to what others say and what America is capable of doing,” he said. “I think the thing that could most change the narrative about Ukraine [would be the] $60 billion flowing from U.S. to Ukraine.”
Cameron, a former prime minister, last headed to D.C. in December where he similarly encouraged Congress to pass an aid package for Ukraine. In February, the foreign secretary penned an op-ed for the Hill, urging the West not to “show the weakness displayed against Hitler in the 1930s.”
But not everyone welcomed his intervention. Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene, an ally of former U.S. President Donald Trump who is herself sharply at odds with Johnson, said Cameron “needs to worry about his own country, and frankly, he can kiss my ass.”