Liz Truss insists UK relationship with the US is 'still special'
Liz Truss insists UK relationship with the US is ‘still special’ despite disagreements with Joe Biden and warns the West not to fall for Vladimir Putin’s ‘bogus’ threats to launch his nukes
- PM made the comments in an interview with CNN broadcast today
- She and Mr Biden met in the margins of the UN General Assembly last week
- PM: ‘I’m determined that we make the special relationship even more special’
Liz Truss today vowed to make the ‘special relationship’ between the UK and the US ‘even more special’ amid claims of a freeze in transatlantic détente.
In an interview on CNN’s State Of The Union programme, the Prime Minister was asked about concerns in US president Joe Biden’s administration that she does not share the same belief in the special relationship as some of her predecessors in No 10.
She and Mr Biden met in the margins of the UN General Assembly last week on issues including the political breakdown in Northern Ireland and the war in Ukraine.
‘I do think our relationship is special and it’s increasingly important at a time when we’re facing threats from Russia, increased assertiveness from China,’ Ms Truss told the US broadcaster.
‘I’m determined that we make the special relationship even more special over the coming years.’
She said she is a ‘huge fan’ of the US, and added: ‘We are stepping up as an alliance to take on what is an absolutely appalling war created by (Russian president Vladimir) Putin’.
She added that the West should not listen to Vladimir Putin’s ‘sabre-rattling’ and ‘bogus threats’ to unleash his nuclear arsenal.
Last week he announced he would mobilise 300,000 reservists as Russia suffers heavy losses in its invasion.
In an interview on CNN’s State Of The Union programme, the Prime Minister was asked about concerns in US president Joe Biden’s administration that she does not share the same belief in the special relationship as some of her predecessors in No 10.
She and Mr Biden met in the margins of the UN General Assembly last week on issues including the political breakdown in Northern Ireland and the war in Ukraine.
She added that the West should not listen to Vladimir Putin’s ‘sabre-rattling’ and ‘bogus threats’ to unleash his nuclear arsenal.
The Prime Minister was asked how the West should respond to the Russian president’s partial military mobilisation and warnings his country would use ‘all the means at our disposal’ to protect itself.
She told CNN’s State Of The Union programme: ‘We should not be listening to his sabre-rattling and his bogus threats.
‘Instead, what we need to do is continue to put sanctions on Russia and continue to support the Ukrainians because if Putin is allowed to succeed, this wouldn’t just send a terrible message in Europe and of course, huge threats to the Ukrainian population themselves, but it also would send a message to other authoritarian regimes around the world that it’s somehow acceptable to… invade a sovereign nation.
‘So this is why it’s so important that we continue to be resolute, we don’t listen to the sabre-rattling that we’re hearing from Putin, and we continue to back the Ukrainians to the hilt.’
Ms Truss’s first meeting with Joe Biden in Washington suggested the term ‘special relationship’ may be phased out as she launched her new foreign policy ethos.
The President did not utter the words, first used by Winston Churchill, during bilateral talks, but instead told her: ‘You’re our closest ally in the world.’
The White House denied the term had been ‘retired’ but offered to suspend its use, with an official saying: ‘We’ll shut it down until we can figure out what’s going on.’
However, the exchange was in sharp contrast to when Miss Truss entered No 10 earlier this month.
At the time, Mr Biden said he looked forward to ‘deepening the special relationship’ between the two nations.
Though he previously used the phrase when dealing with Boris Johnson, the former prime minister has mooted axing the term as it risks sounding ‘needy and weak’.
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