LONDON: Prime Minister David Cameron took the unusual step of listing what he said were Britain’s historical achievements and current strengths in a prickly response to a disputed Kremlin slur that his country was a “small island” that nobody listened to.
In St Petersburg for a G20 summit where possible US military action against the Syrian government dominated the agenda, Cameron chose to focus on comments reportedly made by President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman even though the spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, denied making them.
The row underlined deep tensions between Britain and Russia over Syrian President Bashar Al Assad’s suspected use of chemical weapons and erupted at a time when Cameron is under pressure to show Britain remains an important global actor despite his failure to convince the British parliament of the need for military action against Assad.
Before travelling to the summit, one of his own senior lawmakers, Liam Fox, a former defence minister, had said Cameron now had “no hand to play” on Syria and many commentators had said Cameron was on the summit’s sidelines because of his defeat in the British parliament. Cameron said he knew the comments had been denied, but spent much of his time responding to them, issuing a lengthy written statement and giving a long answer to a question on the subject at his closing press conference yesterday.
“Britain may be a small island, but I would challenge anyone to find a country with a prouder history, a bigger heart or greater resilience,” he said in a statement. Reuters
