KABUL (Pajhwok): US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband discussed the importance of Europe taking a greater role in its own security during a meeting in Washington on Wednesday.
A British official said the two ministers also reaffirmed the strength of relations between the two allies, including their shared commitment to the NATO security alliance, Reuters reported.
Rubio told reporters before the meeting that Ukraine would also be on the agenda. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has stepped up calls for allies to provide more air-defence missiles as Russia intensifies ballistic missile strikes.
Miliband planned to stress that Ukraine’s security is inseparable from European and transatlantic security and to reiterate Britain’s commitment to supporting Ukraine for as long as necessary, his ministry said.
The State Department said the two officials also reaffirmed their shared commitment to ensuring safe transit through the Strait of Hormuz and preventing Iran from developing or obtaining a nuclear weapon.
In a statement issued before the meeting, Miliband stressed the importance of reopening the Gulf waterway to ease the cost-of-living pressures facing Britain. He also said he would raise the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza.
The meeting was “productive and warm”, the British official said, adding that the two diplomats agreed to remain in close contact in the coming weeks and months.
It was Miliband’s second meeting with Rubio after a brief introduction at the ASEAN meeting in Manila in July.
Miliband, who is also Britain’s governor on the board of the World Bank, is due to meet the multilateral development bank’s president, Ajay Banga, during his brief visit to Washington, the ministry said.
sa
