JEREMY Hunt will call on European Union partners to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the US and Britain over Russian aggression as he urges them to impose “comprehensive” sanctions on Moscow.

The challenge will come as he makes his first visit to Washington as Foreign Secretary to give a speech during which he will consider the raft of challenges to the "international rules-based system that has kept us safe for decades," raising issues that could cause some unease in the White House.

Mr Hunt will encourage the EU to join western allies so they speak with "one voice" against transgressions by Russia "whenever and wherever they occur, from the streets of Salisbury to the fate of Crimea".

EU member states, including Germany and France, have been among dozens of countries which expelled Russian diplomats following March's Novichok nerve agent attack on former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, which also resulted in the death of a British woman, Dawn Sturgess, in June.

Yet some have since reached out to President Vladimir Putin with Emmanuel Macron, the French President, travelling to St Petersburg to call on Russia to work "hand-in-hand" with Europe and Italy questioning whether sanctions imposed over the 2014 annexation of Crimea should continue.

The Secretary of State’s visit also follows the historic and controversial summit between Donald Trump and Mr Putin in Helsinki, which led to widespread criticism of the US President.

In a speech at the US Institute of Peace, Mr Hunt is due to say that, under Mr Putin, Russia's "aggressive and malign behaviour undermines the international order that keeps us safe" and its foreign policy has “made the world a more dangerous place”.

He will go on: "And today, the United Kingdom asks its allies to go further by calling on the European Union to ensure its sanctions against Russia are comprehensive and that we truly stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the US.

"That means calling out and responding to transgressions with one voice whenever and wherever they occur, from the streets of Salisbury to the fate of Crimea."

The Secretary of State will also warn the West’s democratic model is “declining in attractiveness for too many people” with many voters since the financial crash of 2008 starting to question globalisation and rejecting political leaders they associate as defending it.

While he will insist the heart of democracy is freedom of expression, Mr Hunt will point to how the “ubiquity of fake news, social media targeting and foreign attempts to manipulate elections have undermined confidence that this can actually happen”.

Yet he warns against “putting our heads in the sand” to blame social media by pretending some of the causes of social resentment are not real; whether caused by the "decline in real incomes for many Americans and Europeans, dislocation caused by changes in technology or the identity concerns of many voters caused by immigration”.

The Foreign Secretary’s three-day visit to the US will also see him hold talks with senior Trump administration officials including Mike Pompeo, the Secretary of State, John Kelly, the White House Chief of Staff, and Jared Kushner, the President's advisor and son-in-law.

On the agenda will be Iran, North Korea, Syria, Yemen and the Middle East peace process.

Mr Hunt will then travel to New York, where on Thursday he is due to address the United Nations Security Council and discuss the fight against so-called Islamic State.