British Foreign Secretary David Cameron speaks during a joint press conference with the Albanian prime minister after a meeting in Tirana on May 22, 2024.
Adnan Beci | AFP | Getty Images
Former UK Prime Minister David Cameron on Thursday said he fears US President Donald Trump’s approach to securing peace in Ukraine could create an alarming precedent.
“My hope is that what Donald Trump is doing is to use very startling language and very startling approach to try and unlock situations, try and create a situation where Ukraine wants to negotiate peace, Russia wants to negotiate peace and get there,” Cameron told CNBC Live in Singapore on Thursday.
“My fear is always going beyond that [and] Trump’s appearance for the world is more than the great power in the neighborhood is sovereign, and you should not interfere with what they want to do, ”Cameron said.
He said it can be “very worrying” for the Baltic states – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania – which, like Ukraine, all share a border with Russia.
“I think it would be very worrying for Ukraine. These are independent, sovereign countries and we have to support the idea that independent sovereign countries should not be occupied,” he added.
Cameron served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016 and as Foreign Minister in the Government of former Prime Minister Risi Sunak from 2023 to 2024.
His comments come shortly after Ukraine said he was ready to support the White House proposal for a 30-day immediate ceasefire if Russia accepts the plan. The US on Tuesday agreed to resume military aid and the division of intelligence with Ukraine as part of the plan.
Russia began its full -scale occupation of Ukraine more than three years ago.
Trump has alarmed European allies, seeming to return to Moscow, breaking US foreign policy decades.
Russia’s attack on Ukraine has attracted fear across the Baltic countries that they may be the other military target of President Vladimir Putin.
Although the Baltic states have been part of NATO and the European Union since 2004, with the three using the euro as their currency, their geographical location makes them vulnerable.
In particular, while Estonia and Latvia share an eastern border with Russia, Lithuania shares a western border with the excluded Russian Kaliningrad.
“If we jump directly into the situation in Ukraine, I just don’t admit that we have to say somewhat Vladimir Putin: ‘Well, this is your neighborhood, you can walk in any place you want, you can influence any place you want,” Cameron said.
“The idea that an irritant should be able to leave with what they want in their neighborhood. I don’t think it will be good for Singapore, of course it wouldn’t be good for Britain, and I don’t think it would be good for America,” he added.
The concerns of trade warfare
Far from Ukraine, Britain’s Cameron was asked for his views on a global trade war, with uncertainty about Trump’s tariffs that arouse concern at Wall Street.
“I’m worried about it because I’m a free trader. I believe that if you maximize free trade, it’s not a place wins and the other country loses, it can be a winning situation and it is normally,” Cameron said.
“I’m afraid that Donald Trump’s view of the world is that kind of sight in one place and says if you have a surplus in trade with me, you are lifting me.
“But and it’s an important, but, as always with Donald Trump, in the heart of what he is saying there is a real and understanding concern,” Cameron said.