Hunt to call on Trump to impose fresh sanctions on Russia

Source: Guardian


UK foreign secretary will also ask US president to tighten rules on online election advertising

Patrick Wintour Diplomatic editor
Mon 20 Aug 2018 19.01 EDT

The British foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, is to urge Donald Trump to face down Moscow’s threat to western values by imposing wider economic sanctions against Russia and agreeing new rules to protect the legitimacy of democratic elections.

In a speech in Washington on Tuesday during his first visit since taking over from Boris Johnson as the UK’s most senior diplomat, Hunt will specifically call for tighter regulation of online political advertising and new measures to prevent cyber attacks on electoral machinery.

Hunt will also throw out a challenge to Trump’s protectionist policies by warning a weakening of free trade will only damage western economies, and ultimately western political power. He will say the emergence of an international order based on the application of law rather than might had led to an exponential growth in trade, leading to extraordinary advances in economic and social prosperity across the globe.

He will also call for Nato to set clearer red lines about Russia’s use of chemical weapons and incursions into foreign territory such as the annexation of Crimea in 2014.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/aug/21/hunt-to-call-on-trump-to-impose-fresh-sanctions-on-russia