AS a lifetime resident of the pleasant city of Salisbury I would urge the new Foreign Secretary,

Jeremy Hunt MP, to find new ways of engaging Moscow to amend its conduct of foreign relations.

Some pointers might include the following:

- The use of Novichok must be abandoned in hunting down enemies of the Russian state.

- The Kremlin must get a grip on its own security agencies who largely operate according to

their own whim.

At the same time, the West has to recognise that:

- The Crimea is going to stay part of Russia, and this has to be accepted.

- The long campaign led by Washington to destabilise the Assad regime in Syria has failed.

President Trump recognises this reality, which is more than can be said for his predecessors.

- The UK, like France, is a major European power which must put its own regional interests

first. Plans to send new aircraft carriers to the Far East shows a remarkable level of wishful

thinking among the Whitehall policy-makers.

Timothy Stroud

Salisbury