Friday, March 29

UK’s Liz Truss warns Russia of ‘terrible quagmire’ if it invades Ukraine | Foreign policy


Liz Truss, the UK foreign secretary, warned Russia that any invasion of Ukraine would only lead to “a terrible quagmire and loss of life” on the scale of the Soviet-Afghan war.

Speaking at the Lowy Institute in Sydney, Australia, Truss framed the Ukraine conflict as part of a broader dispute between what she saw as liberal states and autocracies, including Russia and China.

He urged Vladimir Putin to “give up and walk away from Ukraine before he makes a massive strategic mistake.” The Kremlin, he said, “has not learned the lessons of history” and an “invasion will only lead to a terrible quagmire and loss of life, as we know from the Soviet-Afghan war and conflict in Chechnya.”

Truss added: “We need everyone to step up. Together with our allies, we will continue to support Ukraine and urge Russia to de-escalate and engage in meaningful discussions. What happens in Eastern Europe is important for the world.”

Truss asserted that autocracies were “emboldened in a way that we haven’t seen since the cold war. They seek to export the dictatorship as a service throughout the world. This is why regimes like Belarus, North Korea and Myanmar find their closest allies in Moscow and Beijing.”

His comments came hours before top diplomats from Russia and the United States met in Switzerland to discuss rising tensions over Ukraine after a series of meetings between officials from both sides in the past week produced no breakthrough.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has arrived in Geneva for talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov following a trip through Europe to reinforce US allies’ commitments to punish Russia with sanctions if it goes ahead with an invasion of Ukraine.

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Truss, along with UK defense secretary Ben Wallace, is in Australia to discuss the next stage of the Aukus partnership, including plans for Australia to gain access to US nuclear-powered submarine technology.

Aukus, which brings together Australia, the US and the UK, is designed to be a broader defense partnership, but its launch in September offended the French by canceling its long-standing contract to build diesel submarines.

This week, David Hannay, the UK’s former ambassador to the UN, described the Aukus launch and the offense committed in Paris as “a travesty of diplomacy”. He added: “For years to come, I suspect this episode will be taught in diplomatic academies around the world as a needless way to lose friends and influence.”

The September deal has left so much unspecified that there are doubts Australia will ever gain access to subsea technology. The agreement did not state whether the UK or the US would provide nuclear technology for the submarines, how much it would cost, when it would be completed, or what proportion of the submarines would be built in Australia compared to the US or the UK. .

During her visit, Truss was also embroiled in controversy over a proposed UK increase in alcohol taxes that Australian winemakers say will kill the benefit of the recent UK-Australia free trade deal.

Truss said: “UK tax is UK business and is not discriminatory. It’s based on decisions we have to make about our own system.”


www.theguardian.com

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