INTERNATIONAL: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said on Wednesday ,March 16, that the West needed to end its dependency on Russian energy as it allowed Russia's President, Vladimir Putin, to hold them to ransom.

Johnson has arrived in the United Arab Emirates and will later visit Saudi Arabia as part of efforts to secure additional oil flows to replace Russian hydrocarbons and increase diplomatic pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin over his invasion of Ukraine.

UK’s premier has promised to set out a new national energy strategy next week and highlighted a new Saudi investment in a green aviation fuel project in Britain.

Johnson has also confirmed that Ukraine would not be joining NATO anytime soon, adding the decision on the future of Ukraine was for the people of Ukraine and not Moscow.

British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson has said if you look at what Putin is doing in Ukraine, it's causing global uncertainty and a spike in the price of oil that feeds through to the forecourts in the UK, everybody can see the effect of the increase in gas prices that's coming through . He has mentioned that next week, UK is going to be setting out the energy strategy, a massive jump forward on renewables, more nuclear using their own hydrocarbons more effectively. Also, the British premier is looking at what they can do to source hydrocarbons from places other than Russia. He has mentioned that they got to get off Russian hydrocarbons.

Johnson has also said, United Kingdom must double the pace of all of the construction of wind farms. It is already one of the biggest producers of offshore wind power in the world. He has also said that when they look at the dependency that the West in particular has built up on Putin's hydrocarbons, on Putin's oil and gas, they can see what a mistake that was because he's been able to blackmail the West to hold Western economies to ransom. They need independence from Russia’s energy.