No time for niceties Cameron in hurry to make his mark on the world stage

A day after the Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene declared that "David Cameron can kiss my ass" over his references to the appeasement of Hitler in an article appealing to US lawmakers to pass a Ukraine funding bill, the British foreign secretary returned to the theme.

- Patrick Wintour

Standing alongside his Polish counterpart, Radosław Sikorski, another experienced politician recently recalled to high office, he declared: "Today, two foreign ministers stand here just like in the 1930s, when we faced a similar challenge in the case of an aggressive dictator who tried to change the world by force and ignored the sovereignty and inviolability of other countries' borders." Ukraine, he said, was "a challenge for our generation", adding that the last time a dictator in Europe was allowed to invade other countries, Poland suffered the greatest consequences.

With a limited period in office and the stakes so high, Cameron is a man in a hurry, showing a determination to leave a mark during his second chance in government, even at the risk of fluttering diplomatic dovecotes.

Sikorksi, who returned to office after the defeat of Poland's rightwing populist Law and Justice party, had the confidence this week to challenge Donald Trump's transactionalism when the likely Republican US presidential candidate shocked Nato states by saying he was happy to see Vladimir Putin invade those countries that did not meet the target of spending 2% of their GDP on defence.

He said yesterday, alongside Cameron, that stopping Russian imperialism was a basic condition for preserving freedom and the value system of the civilised world. Of Trump's comments, he acidly observed that Nato's article 5 had only been activated once, after the 11 September 2001 attacks on the US. Poland had then committed itself to Afghanistan and "did not send the bill to Washington", he recalled.