UK foreign secretary opens up on Ukraine, Israel-Hamas, the controversial Rwanda policy and personal criticism in revealing interview with POLITICO.
“This is the challenge for our generation,” Cameron said | Leon Neal/Getty Images)
BY ANNE MCELVOY AND PETER SNOWDON
JANUARY 18, 2024
DAVOS, Switzerland — It feels like the 1930s all over again but with Russian leader Vladimir Putin playing the role of Hitler, U.K. Foreign Secretary David Cameron told POLITICO.
The war in Ukraine remains Cameron’s “absolute number one priority,” he told POLITICO’s Power Play podcast during an interview on Wednesday at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
“This is the challenge for our generation,” Cameron said. “This is like being a foreign minister or a leader in Europe in the 1930s, we have got to not appease Putin. We have got to stand up to the evil that his invasion represents.”
The former U.K. prime minister’s remarks come as the West scrambles to keep Ukraine topped up with high-tech weaponry to fend off Russia’s full-scale invasion, while bracing for the potential return of NATO-skeptic Donald Trump to the White House.
“One thing we can do is demonstrate during the course of this year that Putin isn’t winning,” Cameron said.
Israel’s war on Hamas
Turning to Israel’s war on Hamas in the Middle East, Cameron defended Britain’s refusal to call for an immediate cease-fire, as the Israel Defense Forces bombard Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
“I think that just wouldn’t have worked because if you want a two-state solution, if you want a sustainable cease-fire, you can’t ask the Israelis to have a two-state solution with the people who perpetrated 7th October in command in Gaza, still able to launch rockets into their country,” he said.
Cameron said he felt “deeply moved” by the suffering on both sides of the conflict. “I have been to a kibbutz in the south of Israel and seen the results of what happened on 7th October and the true horror of it,” he said.
“I’ve also listened to [accounts from British Embassy staff in Cairo] coming out of Gaza and what they’ve seen, what they’ve experienced, and the loved ones they’ve lost, and the family members they’ve seen killed,” Cameron added. “You know, a life is a life. I feel deeply about this, but I’m a very practical person and I want to know how do we bring this to an end?”
Cameron also kept open the door for future airstrikes against Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, who have been attacking commercial and Western naval vessels in the Red Sea, resulting in a major bombing retaliation from an allied coalition last week.
“I think it is important ultimately to show you are prepared to follow up words with actions,” Cameron warned the Houthis, adding, “bear in mind when you make warnings, you have to be prepared to take action.”
Rwanda policy strife
On the domestic front, Cameron said he is “absolutely” behind Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s attempts to tackle undocumented migration by sending asylum seekers to Rwanda.
Cameron defended the policy despite describing it as “unorthodox” and “out-of-box thinking.” Asked whether he would have devised the policy when he was prime minister, Cameron said: “Yes, my heart is absolutely in it.”
After passing a crucial stage in the House of Commons on Wednesday, the legislation is expected to go on to meet stiff resistance in Britain’s upper chamber, the House of Lords, where Cameron now sits as a peer.
Reflecting on his return to front-line politics compared to his time as prime minister, Cameron said “it certainly makes you think a lot about how about making decisions, about trying to find the time to think through decisions. It’s still very, very difficult.”
Cameron said: “You can’t determine how people see you,” in response to a question on whether he was sensitive to personal criticism.
“I remember once bumping into Steve Bell, the Guardian cartoonist, and saying, ‘why do you always portray me with this sort of condom over my head? What is it I’ve done to deserve this?’ And he roared with laughter and said, ‘oh, you’re just too smooth.’ And that’s the only way I could put it. Strange way of putting it, but there we are. You have to take the rough of with the smooth in this job,” Cameron said.
……..
The Telegraph also covered this story:
Cameron warns against 1930s-style appeasement of Putin
Foreign Secretary urges Britain’s allies not to push for peace talks between Ukraine and Moscow
18 January 2024 •
Lord Cameron has warned against a 1930s-style appeasement of Vladimir Putin – as Poland condemned “pocket Chamberlains” who it said were willing to sell out Ukraine.
On Thursday, the Foreign Secretary urged Britain’s allies not to push for peace talks between Kyiv and Moscow, arguing that unifying behind Ukraine was ultimately the best way to end the war.
His comments came after reports that European and American officials have been pushing Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, to consider peace talks with Russia amid concerns that the conflict has reached a stalemate.
At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Lord Cameron compared the calls for negotiations to the appeasement of Adolf Hitler by the former British prime minister Neville Chamberlain in the lead-up to the Second World War.
“If foreign ministers keep saying ‘Yes, we will support Ukraine but, yes, we must also start a peace process’, they’ll neither get a strong Ukraine nor a peace process,” he told a gathering of diplomats, foreign leaders and executives.
“But if we just get behind Ukraine, and help Ukraine in this fight, that is the way ultimately to bring this to an end.
“Britain is very clear. To us, this is the struggle of our generation. This is like being a foreign minister or prime minister in the 1930s and fighting that aggression. And what we know from that is, if you appease aggression you get more of it.”
Lord Cameron nodded as Radoslaw Sikorski, the Polish foreign minister, stood up and said: “There is never a shortage of pocket Chamberlains willing to sacrifice other people’s land or freedom for their own peace of mind. We shouldn’t do it.
“If a woman is being raped, it is not the best time to tell her ‘don’t escalate’, or ‘negotiate’. You have to come to her assistance.
“What happens in the occupied territory, what happens to the Ukrainian citizens who are being forcibly Russified, who are being tortured, whose children are getting stolen – these are sacrifices that Ukraine is making, not us. Therefore, it is only up to Ukraine to make those judgments [of whether to enter peace negotiations].”
At Davos this week, Mr Zelensky has been pushing his own terms for peace with Russia. He has called for a full withdrawal of Russian forces from Ukraine, recognition of its 1991 post-Soviet borders and a mechanism to bring Moscow to account for its invasion, for example through reparations.
Mr Zelensky has also ruled out the prospect of talks with Moscow while Putin’s troops remain in his country.
Russia has dismissed the Ukrainian leader’s proposal as “pointless and harmful”.
“To us, this is the struggle of our generation. This is like being a foreign minister or prime minister in the 1930s and fighting that aggression. And what we know from that is, if you appease aggression you get more of it.”
There is simply no alternative.
“You cannot reason with a tiger when your head is in its mouth.”