Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson postpones planned visit to Russia

Boris Johnson has postponed a planned visit to Russia, the Foreign Office has announced.

The FCO said the Foreign Secretary has shelved the planned trip so he could attend a meeting with Nato counterparts.

Mr Johnson is set to meet with foreign ministers, including Donald Trump’s pick for US Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, at the ministerial gathering in Brussels.

The Nato meeting was rescheduled to March 31 after Mr Tillerson indicated he could not attend on its original planned date of April 5 to 6 because Chinese President Xi Jinping would be visiting the US visit on that day.

Though the new date clashes with Mr Johnson's planned visit to Moscow, the meting was not reschedule for the benefit of the UK.

Mr Jonson was due to visit Russia on the invitation of foreign minister Sergey Lavrov. The trip would have been the first by a UK foreign secretary in more than five years.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: "We have unfortunately had to postpone the Foreign Secretary's visit to Russia planned this month due to rescheduling of the Nato foreign ministers meeting," said the spokesman.

“The Foreign Secretary has spoken to Foreign Minister Lavrov and looks forward to reinstating his visit as soon as possible.”

At the time the visit was announced, Government sources insisted it did not represent an attempt to reset relations with Moscow and that Mr Johnson would take a "robust" line with his Russian hosts.

The former Mayor of London has given a mixed commentary on Russia’s Government over the years. A year ago he praised Vladimir Putin’s “ruthless clarity” in Syria for retaking an archeological site from Isis militants, arguing that the operation was “very much to the credit of the Russians”.

He has however also said, in a speech at Chatham House in Deceber, that the UK must lead the fight against Mr Putin’s “cult of the strong man” .

Additional reporting by PA