Anthony Blinken said it is a “great pleasure” to have Lord Cameron, the Foreign Secretary, present.
“We’ve had an ongoing conversation, and ongoing consultation about the major challenges our country is facing together and today was a new chapter in our conversations.
“We of course reaffirmed the imperative of continuing to support and help Ukraine defend itself against the ongoing Russian aggression. I have to say the United Kingdom has been an extraordinary leader in this area since day one.
“The UK was the first country to formalise and finalise the bilateral security agreements that 30 countries have either now concluded negotiations on or are in the process of negotiating with Ukraine to help develop a future for us, one where it can deter aggression and defend itself in the future.
“We talked about ways to strengthen efforts to prevent the transfer of weapons to Russia for use in Ukraine. This is an ongoing challenge and we also see weapons, we also see technologies, to support the defence industrial base in Russia coming from North Korea, from Iran, from China. This is an area of particular concern not only for the United States and the United Kingdom but for many of our allies and our partners throughout Europe.
“We also talked about the imperative of getting assistance to Ukraine now in terms of additional munitions – air defences, artillery, we both heard last week from the Ukrainian foreign minister at Nato about the immediate needs. Both of our countries are pressing ourselves and pressing others to do this.”
Mr Blinken said the additional funding request Joe Biden had made was “urgent” and “imperative”, hoping for a vote “as quickly as possible… When it comes to burden-sharing, I have never seen a better example in my time in government, now over 30 years. The United States has done extraordinary things for Ukraine. Our partners in Europe and across the world have done even more… We need to continue to do our part.”
