Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Cameron is heading to Washington to lobby senior Republican lawmakers for US military funding for Ukraine, according to Politico.
Cameron’s visit comes ahead of a face-to-face meeting with US House Speaker Mike Johnson this week, Politico reported.
The US aid package has been stalled since last fall due largely to opposition from the far-right Republicans in the US Congress, suspending military assistance that Kyiv needs to fight Russia. In February, the Senate passed a $95 billion foreign aid bill, including $60+ billion for Ukraine, with bipartisan support. Yet, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson made clear he wouldn’t give it a vote on the House floor, stating on 14 February that the House will not feel “rushed” to pass the package. Then Johnson had withheld the bill until the government funding issue was resolved, despite urgent requests from Kyiv. Michael McCaul, chair of the US House Foreign Affairs Committee, stated that Johnson is committed to holding the vote sometime after 9 April when Congress reconvenes from the break.
The Telegraph reported on 7 April, citing Cameron, who said that if Russian President Vladimir Putin triumphs in Ukraine, “we all lose.”
“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,” he said in a joint op-ed for The Daily Telegraph with his French counterpart Stéphane Séjourné.
Cameron urged European foreign ministers earlier to pressure Johnson to “get that supplemental through” after a two-day NATO meeting. “Congress does listen to what others say and what America is capable of doing,” Cameron said. “I think the thing that could most change the narrative about Ukraine [would be the] $60 billion flowing from US to Ukraine.”
The former British prime minister traveled to Washington in December to encourage Congress to pass aid for Ukraine. In February, he wrote an op-ed for The Hill, urging the West not to “show the weakness displayed against Hitler in the 1930s.”
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