Very busy saving his term as prime minister threatened by the “partygate”, these parties organized in Downing Street during confinement, Boris Johnson had so far been discreet on the international scene. He intends to catch up. After a short stopover in Kiev, the 1er February, to assure President Volodymyr Zelensky of the support of the United Kingdom in the face of the aggressiveness of its Russian neighbor, he was above all to meet, Thursday, February 10, with the Secretary General of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, in Brussels, then with the Polish Prime Minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, and President Andrzej Duda, in Warsaw.
Keir Starmer, the leader of Britain’s Labor opposition, will also travel to Brussels to meet separately with Mr Stoltenberg on Thursday: a way of showing the United Kingdom’s united front in the Ukraine crisis – at the same time as his ambition to one day lead the country. On the same day, the British Foreign Minister, Liz Truss, was due to see the head of Russian diplomacy, Sergey Lavrov, before giving way to her colleague Ben Wallace, Minister of Defence, who will meet his Russian counterpart on Friday. “They will insist that the only possible path for Moscow is to end its aggressive hybrid warfare campaign and engage in serious discussions,” specified Downing Street, Wednesday evening.
Mr. Johnson, who, like US President Joe Biden, takes a hard line against the Kremlin, should announce that he is available to NATO and its allies 1,000 additional British soldiers, ready to intervene “in the event of a humanitarian crisis”, and invite its international partners to “demonstrate their solidarity with the NATO allies threatened by Russian aggression”. London has already announced the sending of 350 members of the Royal Marines and proposed the deployment of Royal Air Force fighter planes in southern Europe and Royal Navy buildings (air defense and patrol boats) in the east of the Mediterranean.
“When NATO was founded, the Allies made a historic commitment to preserve the freedom of each of its members. The United Kingdom maintains its unwavering commitment to European security, said the British leader before his departure. We need real diplomacy, not coercive diplomacy. The Alliance must draw a line in the snow and not compromise on its principles. These include the security of every NATO ally and the right of all European democracies to aspire to membership in the Atlantic Alliance. »
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