LONDON – Making her first foreign visit since becoming British prime minister, Liz Truss used her speech at the United Nations on Wednesday to call for support for Ukraine, underlining her commitment to with the free market economy and warn of the threat to global security posed by authoritarian states.
Ms Truss succeeds Boris Johnson as prime minister this month, but Queen Elizabeth II’s death has taken over the UK agenda just days after she came to power, culminating in a state funeral on Thursday. Two.
During her time as secretary of state under Mr Johnson, Ms. Truss’ appearance at the United Nations was her first opportunity to map out her own policies on the international stage.
She promised to lead a “new England” for the new era the country was entering under King Charles III, marked by a “commitment to hope and progress”.
On Ukraine, she signaled that she would continue Mr Johnson’s policy of strongly supporting the country and its president, Volodymyr Zelensky. “We will not rest until Ukraine prevails,” she said.
And she reiterated her promise to increase Britain’s defense spending to 3 percent of gross domestic product by 2030, a pledge long urged by the United States to counter threats to European security such as Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“This is a defining moment in our history, in the history of this organization, and in the history of freedom,” Ms. Truss added.
“The story of 2022 could be an authoritarian state rolling its tanks across the border of a peaceful neighbor and subduing its people. Instead, it is a story of fighting back to freedom.”
Ms. Truss plans to invest in Britain’s strategic capabilities and strengthen its alliances against authoritarian powers such as Russia and China, her office said.
At home, Ms. Truss plans a tax cut she hopes will stimulate economic growth and prevent a looming recession. She said in New York that democracies working together should protect each other’s economic security in a new era of “strategic cooperation,” freeing nations from dependence “on those who seek to weaponization of the global economy”.
Ms Truss is also scheduled to meet with President Biden, who will urge her to work with the European Union to resolve tensions around post-Brexit trade deals in Northern Ireland, the White House has said. Ms. Truss said she would pass a bill that would allow her to change those trading rules despite critics’ concerns that this could break international treaties and undermine the peace process. ended decades of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland.
