According to a recent article and video published by The Telegraph, the UK has managed to develop its ties with international partners effectively. 

As reporter Steve Edginton explains it, it turns out that contrary to what many believed, Brexit did not weaken the UK’s international status and the ongoing war in Ukraine only emphasised its key role in Eastern Europe as a leading NATO power.

Brexit and the Russian invasion of Ukraine are described as key turning points which accelerated this tendency.

“If Boris Johnson’s visit to Kyiv at the weekend was a surprise for most of us, it came as a monumental shock to those who said Brexit would doom the UK to diplomatic irrelevance” – Edginton writes.

“Yet in Eastern Europe, far from damaging relations, Britain’s exit from Brussels seems to have only made them stronger”- the journalist continues.

Edgington argues that “Britain’s role as a leading military power in Europe has ensured its place as a key ally for nations concerned about the threat from the East with British forces forming a vital part of Nato’s contingency in the Baltic states and beyond.”

In a recent interview given to The Telegraph, Poland’s Deputy Prime Minister Piotr Gliński argues that the fact that the UK broke free from the shackles of the EU allowed both countries to form a trilateral agreement with Ukraine among others.

In turn, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy repeatedly praised the British Prime Minister for his “historic leadership” displayed in the last few weeks in the context of the UK’s involvement in supporting Ukraine militarily and via humanitarian aid.

“We always perceived the UK as a close ally and a close friend. This situation [of war in Ukraine] shows that we can do more in our bilateral relations and that is what we are doing. […] The UK was always a pleasant country for us. We always see a good ally with this country” – Poland’s Deputy Interior Minister Bartosz Grodecki told The Telegraph. The latter drew attention to the fact that there is a “huge” Polish diaspora in the UK because “feel good” in that country.

“In 1988 Mrs Thatcher became the first British PM to visit Poland since the Second World War when she laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior in Warsaw. The monument commemorates battles where British and Polish troops fought side by side […] and Mrs Thatcher’s gesture helped to heal at least some […] wounds left by what is […] perceived as Britain’s failure to save Poland from the Nazis at the beginning of the war” – the Telegraph article explains.

It concludes by affirming that today’s “Brexit Britain has a unique opportunity to expand even further its influence in Eastern Europe.”

Image: YouTube (The Telegraph)

Author: Sébastien Meuwissen