What has new UK Prime Minister Liz Truss said about other world leaders in the past?
The UK’s new Prime Minister was formerly the country’s Foreign Secretary and will likely want to present a strong image to the world.
The United Kingdom has a new Prime Minister after former Foreign Secretary Liz Truss won the race to replace Boris Johnson as leader of the country’s ruling Conservative Party. She was officially confirmed as the new PM after meeting with the Queen on Tuesday.
Truss has been in government since Johnson came to power in 2019 and was named Foreign Minister in 2021 after a cabinet reshuffle. She has taken on a very public role in the UK’s response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and won election on the back of a pledge to restore the country’s global pre-eminence.
What has Liz Truss said about Emmanuel Macron?
In recent decades the UK and France have maintained a fairly close relationship, but the issue of Brexit has placed a wedge between the two more recently. While Foreign Secretary, Truss claimed that France needed to deploy more border control officers to deal with the Brexit-related queues that were growing in the French port of Calais.
She has also commented on France’s President, Emmanuel Macron recently. In the course of her successful campaign to become Conservative Party leader, Truss was asked: “President Macron, friend or foe?”
“The jury’s out,” she responded, receiving loud applause from the audience. “But if I become Prime Minister, I would judge him on deeds, not words.”
Her remarks were criticised by members of her own party, with one Conservative minister telling the BBC that Truss had “completely undermined our relationship with France” with her incendiary comments.
Macron issued a strong response, warning Truss not to “lose your bearings in life. We live in a complicated world, you have more and more illiberals, authoritarian democracies, destabilizing powers.”
“If we are not able to tell between France and the UK whether we are enemies or friends — the terms are not neutral — we are heading towards serious problems,” he said.
What has Liz Truss said about Biden and Trump?
The Prime Minister’s relationship with the American President is always a subject of great intrigue on both sides of the Atlantic. Truss became a prominent Brexiteer in the aftermath of the UK’s decision to leave to European Union and her Euroscepticism may push her into a closer relationship with the US.
She has said little about President Joe Biden specifically but has been asked about the relationship between the two nations, describing it as “special but not exclusive”.
“I do love the United States, I think it’s a fabulous country and a very close ally of the United Kingdom,” she added. “We’ve got other close allies as well. Australia is becoming a close ally of ours, we’ve got important relationships across Europe. We have an important relationship with India.”
She refused to answer a question on former President Trump, saying that she would not comment on “future potential presidential runners.”
What has Liz Truss said about the Russian invasion?
As the UK’s head of foreign affairs, Truss met with her Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov numerous times as tensions in Eastern Europe escalated in early 2022. She caused a stir in February when she mistakenly claimed that the Voronezh and Rostov areas of Russia were Ukrainian territory. She said that “the UK will never recognise Russian sovereignty over these regions.”
During the leadership election contest, Truss said that she would “call out” the actions of President Putin for the invasion of Ukraine at a G20 summit later this year.
Liz Truss will represent the UK in the November summit in Indonesia, and pledged to “call him out in front of those very important swing countries like India and Indonesia.”
What has Liz Truss said about China?
While Russia has garnered more headlines in 2022, the threat of China is considered by many foreign policy experts to be the main concern facing the West. During a televised leadership debate, Truss was asked for her views on China’s President Xi Jinping.
When asked if President Xi was a foe, Truss said: “I am not going to use the word foe, but what I will say is I am concerned about China’s assertiveness.”
In the course of campaigning she drew a distinction between herself and fellow candidate Rishi Sunak by accusing him of “seeking closer economic relations” with China.