UK’s Truss travels to U.S. for Russia talks with Secretary of State Blinken

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss walks outside Downing Street in London, Britain March 8, 2022. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls

LONDON (Reuters) – British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss will meet her U.S. counterpart Antony Blinken in Washington on Wednesday to discuss what more can be done to help Ukraine and reduce energy dependency on Russia.

The meeting with Britain’s closest military ally comes as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, the biggest attack on a European state since World War Two, forces the West to examine its economic and security strategy.

“The Ukraine crisis is a wake-up call for free democracies,” Truss said in a statement.

“I am in the US to talk about what more we can do to deter hostile state actors, reduce strategic dependency on Russian energy – and authoritarian states more broadly – and build stronger economic and security alliances around the world.”

Moscow describes its actions in Ukraine as a “special operation” to disarm its neighbour and unseat leaders it calls neo-Nazis. Ukraine and its Western allies call this a baseless pretext.

Truss will also meet National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and members of Congress. She is due to give a speech at the Atlantic Council think tank.

Britain has sought a leading role in coordinating the international response to Russia’s invasion, and Truss will use her meetings to stress the need to go further on sanctions. Britain, for example, wants to close off all Russian access to the SWIFT international payment system, rather than the current limited ban.

“The UK, US and our allies have shown remarkable strength and unity in supporting Ukraine and imposing severe sanctions on Russia,” she said.

“We need to maintain that unity and do more to ensure Putin fails in Ukraine.”