UK’s Foreign Minister David Cameron visited his counterpart, Annalena Bearbock, in Berlin on Thursday to discuss, among other things, support for Ukraine, including the provision of long-range missile systems.
The German-British Strategic Dialogue was established in 2021 to facilitate more in-depth discussions on current foreign policy issues. This time, the meeting was preceded by renewed public debate over supplying Ukraine with German Taurus long-range missiles.
“Nothing should stop us from helping so long as a NATO soldier does not kill a Russian soldier,“ Cameron said at the concluding press conference, expressing his doubts that new weapon systems would escalate the conflict.
For some time now, the UK has been supplying Ukraine with its long-range missiles – a move that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has so far blocked.
German-made Taurus missiles have a range of 500 kilometres and can hit targets with great precision.
Even though both ministers agreed that discussions about differences are to be kept behind closed doors, Cameron’s support for providing Ukraine with long-range weapons was impossible to ignore.
“Of course, we also come to the question of what we can achieve in terms of medium and long-range missiles,” he said.
“And to all those in Germany and also everywhere else […] who would like to see an end to this conflict, I would like to say [… that] peace is achieved through strength, by demonstrating that Putin cannot win,” Cameron stressed.
Baerbock agreed that “anyone who wants an end to this deliberate Russian war of aggression and annihilation must now mobilise all means of self-defence for Ukraine,” without referring directly to long-range weapon systems. “Anyone who ignores this […] is acting negligently,” she added.
“The strength of politics [is] that you are prepared to reflect, to scrutinise.”
Cameron himself stressed the need to support Ukraine and pointed out that it is important to question oneself if “we give them everything they need to win?”
For the German Foreign Minister, it was important to mention that “the German government as a whole is asking itself again every day what more we can do to support Ukraine.”
(Kjeld Neubert | Euractiv.de)
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