WASHINGTON (AP) — Britain wants the European Union to ensure its sanctions on Russia are sufficiently comprehensive in response to accusations Moscow poisoned a former Russian spy in Britain, using a nerve agent.
In his first speech in the U.S. as Britain’s foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt was expected Tuesday to call on the EU and United States to respond to Russia with “one voice.” He says the EU should review its sanctions and make sure “we truly stand shoulder to shoulder with the U.S.”
“Of course we must engage with Moscow, but we must also be blunt: Russia’s foreign policy under President (Vladimir) Putin has made the world a more dangerous place,” Hunt said, according to excerpts of the speech released by the British Embassy.
Hunt’s speech at the U.S. Institute of Peace comes just weeks after President Donald Trump rattled European allies during a two-day NATO summit in Brussels where he criticized defense spending and, at one point, questioned the value of the military alliance.
Trump later met with Putin, and cast doubt on U.S. intelligence that Russia tried to sway voters in the 2016 election. He later said he misspoke.
Russia is accused by Britain of illegally using a military-grade nerve agent in an attempted assassination of a former spy and his daughter in the English city of Salisbury earlier this year. Both eventually recovered. The Kremlin denies involvement.
This month, the Trump administration announced new export restrictions on Russia in response to the poisoning. The move was the latest in a slew of U.S. sanctions on Russia for what Washington says are human rights abuses, meddling in the U.S. election and military aggression in Ukraine and Syria.
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This version corrects that Britain is asking the European Union, not the United States, to impose further sanctions on Russia.
