Boris Johnson looks on awkwardly as Macron and other EU leaders greet at Nato meeting
Boris Johnson stood awkwardly alone as EU leaders shook hands ahead of the Nato family photo.
A clip of the meeting shows EU leaders greeting one another cheerfully at the start of the Nato summit while Boris Johnson stood looking on with his hands in his pockets.
Emmanuel Macron could be seen shaking hands and smiling with other EU leaders only a few feet from the UK prime minister who looked around awkwardly as he waited for a greeting from the French president.
Social media users branded the UK an “embarrassment” in response to the clip while others quipped that the video shows what world leaders think of “global Britain.”
Mr Johnson and Mr Macron have previously failed to see eye to eye on the world stage.
Last September the Prime Minister told his French counterpart to “donnez-moi un break” and get over his anger about a military pact between the UK, US and Australia which resulted in France being pushed out of a major contract with Australia.
While in December it was reported that Mr Macron called Mr Johnson a “clown” in private conversation.
It comes as Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg opened an emergency summit bringing together Biden and other leaders by saying that the alliance is determined to continue to ratchet up the costs on Russia for its aggression.
To keep up the pressure on Russia, president Zelenskyy said he would ask in a video conference with Nato members that the alliance provide “effective and unrestricted” support to Ukraine, including any weapons the country needs.
Russia “wants to go further against eastern members of Nato, the Baltic states and Poland for sure,” president Zelenskiy said in a pre-recorded video address to the summit.
“But Nato has yet to show what the alliance can do to save people,” he added.
Speaking to broadcasters after landing in Belgium’s capital, Boris Johnson said Vladimir Putin had doubled down on his “path of violence and aggression.”
“We've got to tighten the economic vice around Putin, sanctioning more people today, as we are, sanctioning the Wagner Group, looking at what we can do to stop Putin using his gold reserves, and also doing more to help the Ukrainians defend themselves.”
The foreign office said it was sanctioning 65 more entities and individuals, including Russian billionaire Eugene Shvidler and Galina Danilchenko, who was installed by Moscow as the mayor of occupied Melitopol in south-east Ukraine.
The Wagner Group plans to assassinate Mr Zelensky as his forces continue to put up a far stronger resistance than many anticipated, it has been warned.
