The FINANCIAL — BRUSSELS — British Prime Minister Theresa May has welcomed a planned meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and his Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying it should be used to lower the risk of conflict between NATO and Moscow.
At a dinner for NATO leaders late on July 11 in Brussels after a day of confrontations between the U.S. president and European leaders, May offered an upbeat assessment of Trump’s much-anticipated meeting with Putin on July 16, according to RFE/RL.
“Open channels of communication between the U.S. and Russia are key to managing the risks of confrontation,” she said, according to her spokesman.
At the dinner, May also highlighted what she called Moscow’s “malign activity,” including Kremlin-linked cyberattacks on the West and the alleged use of a Soviet-era nerve agent against a former Russian spy on British soil, the spokesman said.
London’s relations with Moscow have been severely strained since the poisoning of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in March.
Britain, the United States, and European allies have blamed the poisoning on Russia, leading to the largest expulsion of Russian diplomats since the Cold War.
Russia denies the accusations and responded with tit-for-tat expulsions of Western envoys.
Still, Britain has advocated cautiously maintaining communications with Moscow. At the NATO dinner, May said that engagement with Russia must come from a position of strength that underpinned by a strong transatlantic alliance, her spokesman told reporters.
“As we engage Russia we must do so from a position of unity and strength — holding out hope for a better future, but also clear and unwavering on where Russia needs to change its behavior for this to become a reality,” she was quoted as saying.
“And, as long as Russia persists in its efforts to undermine our interests and values, we must continue to deter and counter them.”
Pointed Accusations
May’s endorsement of the Trump-Putin meeting comes after a day of pointed accusations by Trump against NATO allies — Germany, in particular. Some officials at the summit said Trump has raised questions about his commitment to NATO, which he has repeatedly criticized.
While Trump in the past has called on other NATO members to meet their commitments to spend 2 percent of economic output on defense, the American leader stunned his European counterparts on July 11 by calling on them to double their military spending to 4 percent, according to RFE/RL.
Despite the discord between transatlantic allies, the summit on its first day produced a strong statement criticizing Russia and calling for “fair burden-sharing.”
“We will continue to stand together and act together, on the basis of solidarity, shared purpose, and fair burden-sharing,” the statement said.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg credited Trump for pushing members to increase defense spending. He noted that European countries and Canada are expected to “add an extra $266 billion to defense between now and 2024.”
The NATO statement also extended an invitation to Macedonia to join the alliance after it implements its settlement of a long-running name dispute with NATO member Greece.
NATO also reaffirmed its rejection of Russia’s forcible annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea Peninsula in 2014.,
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Russia’s move was “one of the main reasons why NATO has implemented the biggest reinforcement of collective defense since the Cold War” and has increased its presence in Poland as well as in Baltic and Black Sea states.
NATO is sending Russia “a very clear signal that anything similar to what happened in Crimea cannot happen against any NATO country,” Stoltenberg said.
Meetings at the NATO summit on July 12 are focusing on the conflicts in Afghanistan and Ukraine, and security in the Black Sea region.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, Ukraine’s Petro Poroshenko, and Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili are all attending those meetings.
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