Boris Johnson and Rex Tillerson to have first meeting amid furore over Donald Trump team's links with Russia
The Foreign Secretary has been accused by Russia of trying to divide Moscow and Washington
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Your support makes all the difference.Boris Johnson is set to have his first face-to-face meeting with Donald Trump’s Secretary of State Rex Tillerson amid disarray in the President’s team over its links with Russia.
Mr Johnson is due to see Mr Tillerson at a get-together of G20 foreign ministers on Thursday, The Independent understands.
But the gathering in Bonn will also see former ExxonMobil CEO Mr Tillerson meeting his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov.
Foreign Secretary Mr Johnson’s first sit-down with Mr Trump’s top diplomat comes as the President’s administration is struggling to cope with the fallout from the resignation of national security adviser Mike Flynn.
Sources said discussions between Mr Johnson and Mr Tillerson will likely focus on counter-terrorism, Nato, Syria and Russia – the latter at the centre of the furore surrounding Mr Flynn’s departure.
He stepped down on Monday after it was revealed he had failed to admit that he held calls with the Russian ambassador to the US last year, reassuring them that US sanctions would be overturned.
Since then law enforcement and intelligence officials have revealed how members of Mr Trump’s campaign and other associates had repeated contact with Russian officials in the run-up to the US election.
This occurred around the same time they discovered that Russia had carried out a “campaign of influence”, posting fake news to sabotage Hillary Clinton's candidacy, though the officials did not conclude there was evidence of collusion.
Theresa May gave a speech on her trip to the US in January warning Mr Trump and other Republican politicians to “beware” of Vladimir Putin, urging the US and the UK to engage with the Kremlin “from a position of strength”.
Relations between Russia and the UK have become increasingly strained as the Kremlin has accused Britain of seeking to drive a wedge between Moscow and Washington.
The Russian Embassy in London has accused the Foreign Secretary of seeking to start a new Cold War after he claimed Moscow was “up to all sorts of very dirty tricks”, such as cyber warfare, amid claims the Kremlin holds compromising material on the President.
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