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Hunt to call on Trump to impose fresh sanctions on Russia Jeremy Hunt calls for fresh EU sanctions against Russia
(about 11 hours later)
The British foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, is to urge Donald Trump to face down Moscow’s threat to western values by imposing wider economic sanctions against Russia and agreeing new rules to protect the legitimacy of democratic elections. Jeremy Hunt is to urge the EU to stand shoulder to shoulder with the US administration by going further to impose more comprehensive sanctions against Russia.
In a speech in Washington on Tuesday during his first visit since taking over from Boris Johnson as the UK’s most senior diplomat, Hunt will specifically call for tighter regulation of online political advertising and new measures to prevent cyber attacks on electoral machinery. In his first speech since his appointment as foreign secretary, Hunt will renew the British attack on Russian efforts to undermine liberal democracies, saying that the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has made the world “a more dangerous place”, and that after a chemical weapons attack in England, the EU should apply more pressure to protect western democracy from Russian interference and ensure Russia sticks to international rules.
Hunt will also throw out a challenge to Trump’s protectionist policies by warning a weakening of free trade will only damage western economies, and ultimately western political power. He will say the emergence of an international order based on the application of law rather than might had led to an exponential growth in trade, leading to extraordinary advances in economic and social prosperity across the globe. “Today the United Kingdom asks its allies to go further by calling on the European Union to ensure its sanctions against Russia are comprehensive, and that we truly stand shoulder to shoulder with the US,” Hunt will tell an audience in Washington DC on his first visit since taking over from Boris Johnson as the UK’s most senior diplomat.
“That means calling out and responding to transgressions with one voice whenever and wherever they occur, from the streets of Salisbury to the fate of Crimea.”
He will also call for new measures to control potential Russian interference in western democratic elections. “Of course we must engage with Moscow, but we must also be blunt: Russia’s foreign policy under President Putin has made the world a more dangerous place,” he will say.
Although Donald Trump has adopted an emollient approach to Putin on a personal level, his administration has arguably adopted more comprehensive anti-Russian measures than the EU, imposing not just broad economic sanctions, but also measures against a group of Russian oligarchs close to the Kremlin.
Under pressure from Congress, in August the US administration agreed additional sanctions that ban US firms from receiving export licences to sell any equipment to Russia with a national security purpose.
Hunt, in Washington for his first round of discussions with US administration officials, including the US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that he appreciated that Trump was a controversial president. However, he added that the US had done a huge amount in response to the chemical weapons attack in Salisbury, attributed by Britain to Russian agents.
In practice, there is little sign that the EU would agree to impose stronger sanctions against Moscow, with the new Italian populist government, for instance, pressing for them to be relaxed. Additional sanctions have to be agreed unanimously by EU member states.
The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, met Putin last week and is resisting growing US pressure to cancel the Nordstrom 2 project, a massive new gas pipeline from Russia that will arguably make the EU more dependent on Russian gas supplies.
Hunt also insisted that Trump had not been the isolationist president that many people had feared, pointing to his personal engagement with North Korea, and with Putin. “This is someone who does fundamentally believe there should be a rules-based order internationally,” Hunt said.
On the future viability of Nato the president had a point, Hunt said. “It is not in the long run sustainable to have one country in Nato, primarily set up for the defence on Europe, spending 4% of their GDP, and a whole bunch of other countries not even spending 2%.
In his speech later on Tuesday, Hunt will also urge Trump to agree to new rules to protect the legitimacy of democratic elections, making a specific call for tighter regulation of online political advertising and measures to prevent cyber-attacks on electoral machinery.
Hunt will also throw out a challenge to Trump’s protectionist policies by warning a weakening of free trade will only damage western economies, and ultimately western political power.
He will also call for Nato to set clearer red lines about Russia’s use of chemical weapons and incursions into foreign territory such as the annexation of Crimea in 2014.He will also call for Nato to set clearer red lines about Russia’s use of chemical weapons and incursions into foreign territory such as the annexation of Crimea in 2014.
Without directly challenging the legitimacy of Trump’s election as president in 2016, he will point to the drawbacks in many recent democratic outcomes, saying: “The heart of any democracy is freedom of expression, which allows citizens to access independent information to help decide who to vote for. But the ubiquity of fake news, social media targeting and foreign attempts to manipulate elections have undermined confidence that this can actually happen.”Without directly challenging the legitimacy of Trump’s election as president in 2016, he will point to the drawbacks in many recent democratic outcomes, saying: “The heart of any democracy is freedom of expression, which allows citizens to access independent information to help decide who to vote for. But the ubiquity of fake news, social media targeting and foreign attempts to manipulate elections have undermined confidence that this can actually happen.”
Any tarnishing of Trump’s electoral mandate is highly perilous territory for a foreign politician, and Hunt will temper his criticism by saying western leaders should not deceive themselves that populism is merely a byproduct of social media spreading fake news.Any tarnishing of Trump’s electoral mandate is highly perilous territory for a foreign politician, and Hunt will temper his criticism by saying western leaders should not deceive themselves that populism is merely a byproduct of social media spreading fake news.
He will point to the deeper reasons behind Trump’s election, saying: “We are putting our heads in the sand if we blame social media by pretending that some of the causes of that resentment are not real – whether caused by the decline in real incomes for many Americans and Europeans, dislocation caused by changes in technology or the identity concerns of many voters caused by immigration.”He will point to the deeper reasons behind Trump’s election, saying: “We are putting our heads in the sand if we blame social media by pretending that some of the causes of that resentment are not real – whether caused by the decline in real incomes for many Americans and Europeans, dislocation caused by changes in technology or the identity concerns of many voters caused by immigration.”
At the same time, he will imply these trends reveal “a fraying domestic support for democratic systems” in the west. “Since the financial crash of 2008, many voters have started to question globalisation and reject political leaders they associate as defending it,” he will say.At the same time, he will imply these trends reveal “a fraying domestic support for democratic systems” in the west. “Since the financial crash of 2008, many voters have started to question globalisation and reject political leaders they associate as defending it,” he will say.
A former culture secretary, immersed in the debate about online political manipulation, he will propose tightening the rules governing online political advertising. “Given the importance of the online world for political communication the rules governing online activity in the runup to elections should surely be as strict as those elsewhere – and modern electorates should be given confidence the results cannot be influenced by the cyber activities of other countries.” A former culture secretary, immersed in the debate about online political manipulation, he will propose tightening the rules governing online political advertising.
Hunt’s remarks suggest he is prepared to back the case recently made by the former foreign secretary Lord Hague for a ban on online paid political advertising of the kind that has been imposed on broadcasters for decades. Hague acknowledged he had adopted the idea from a book by former Labour communications chief Tom Baldwin in which he described political advertising in social media as “the most lethal weapon in campaign communications ever invented”. The overall tone of Hunt’s speech is notably more pointed than the style adopted by Boris Johnson.
The overall tone of Hunt’s speech is notably more pointed than the style adopted by his predecessor Boris Johnson.
It is likely to be read as an intervention on the side of the anti-Russian faction in the often-feuding US administration, a side that has been slowly recovering ground after Trump was deemed to have misjudged his bilateral, two-hour, one-to-one summit with Putin in Helsinki in July. Following the summit, Trump implied that he trusted the Russian president as much if not more than his own intelligence agencies.It is likely to be read as an intervention on the side of the anti-Russian faction in the often-feuding US administration, a side that has been slowly recovering ground after Trump was deemed to have misjudged his bilateral, two-hour, one-to-one summit with Putin in Helsinki in July. Following the summit, Trump implied that he trusted the Russian president as much if not more than his own intelligence agencies.
Trump has always been reluctant to support wider sanctions against Russia.
Before the summit Trump clashed with his Nato allies and implied he might accept the annexation of Crimea from Ukraine – a policy the US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, repudiated days after the summit.
In the first direct political engagement with the Trump administration since the American president’s controversial visit to Britain two months ago, Hunt will on Wednesday meet Pompeo, as well as Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, and John Kelly, the White House chief of staff.
Hunt will urge the EU to stand truly shoulder to shoulder with the US administration by going further to impose more comprehensive sanctions against Russia. The US Senate has not just targeted Russian industries, but also the assets of oligarchs close to Putin.
Hunt will say: “Of course we must engage with Moscow, but we must also be blunt: Russia’s foreign policy under President Putin has made the world a more dangerous place.”
Hunt’s talks on Wednesday will cover the denuclearisation of North Korea, the future of Syria and Yemen and the Middle East peace process. The two sides are likely to probe for potential common ground over the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, still supported by the EU, but torn up by Trump. The US is threatening to impose secondary sanctions on any EU firm that continues to invest in Iran, a move that is compelling EU private companies, including Total, to disinvest.
Jeremy HuntJeremy Hunt
Donald TrumpDonald Trump
International tradeInternational trade
RussiaRussia
Trump-Russia investigationTrump-Russia investigation
EconomicsEconomics
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