Burnham’s decision to actively exclude Putin comes after U.S. President Donald Trump sparked a diplomatic row by inviting the Russian leader to America’s G20 summit in Miami this December.
British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband previously told POLITICO Britain will not ditch its ban on directly engaging with Russia, but that it was for the U.S. to make its own decisions.
A photocall at the G20 foreign ministers meeting last week was canceled after politicians, including Miliband, refused to be pictured with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
The U.K. has been one of Ukraine’s staunchest supporters since Russia’s full-scale invasion of the country in 2022 — a policy followed by all the five British prime ministers in post during nearly five years of war.
Burnham also told the Economist he’s keen to host Xi Jinping after the Chinese president visited Manchester in 2015, and said there’s a “real opportunity” for future U.K.-China economic collaboration after his predecessor Keir Starmer’s visit to Beijing earlier this year.
This story has been updated to reflect a full transcript of Burnham’s interview with The Economist.