LONDON – President Joe Biden’s conversation with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson last month will not be among the most consistent policy action for most observers, but the fact that one of the US leader’s first phone calls after his inauguration was to the British leader felt in London.
“I was reassured when Joe Biden asked about Prime Minister Johnson, which I think was reassuring to many in London,” said Nile Gardiner, director of the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom, a Washington-based think tank.
Which world leader a new US president speaks to and when is being watched closely for clues as to the incoming government’s priorities and preferences. The UK places more importance than most on cross-border ties – what is known as the ‘special relationship’, a phrase coined by British war leader Winston Churchill over 70 years ago. Successive prime ministers have raced to be among the first to receive a call or visit from a new president, signaling the countries’ enduring bond.
However, whether Johnson will be able to maintain the UK’s close relationship with the United States is of great concern here. Johnson worked hard to forge links with former President Donald Trump, a fellow populist with a shared disdain for Europe. But Johnson has long been at odds with Biden, who once called him a “physical and emotional clone of Trump” and made the restoration of America’s international alliances a centerpiece of his foreign policy agenda.
“The next four years are a challenging time for this special relationship. The UK government must handle its relationship with Biden’s presidency with care, ”said Gardiner.
Doing so will require you to overcome a fair amount of personal and political hostility. Ties were strained in 2016 when then-President Barack Obama warned that if Britain left the European Union, it would be “back in line” for an eventual next trade deal with the US – leaving Johnson, then the mayor. of London, which had concluded Brexit his signature policy initiative.
Biden also warned Johnson last year against pursuing a Brexit deal that would create a hard border between the UK and Ireland and undermine the 1998 Good Friday peace deal.
Johnson also took offense at the removal of a bust of Churchill, his personal hero, from Obama’s Oval Office, writing that the snub was a symptom of Obama’s’ partially Kenyan ‘legacy, which could explain his’ ancestral dislike of the British Empire. . Considering his colonial rule over Kenya. Critics condemned the comment as racist.
Trump, on the other hand, encouraged Britain to leave the EU and dangled the prospect of a swift and “massive” US trade deal as a reward. Britain courted Trump by rolling out the red carpet and the royal family during a rare state visit in 2019. Still, it got nothing in return.
A State Department spokesman said the countries “shared a special relationship that is a fundamental aspect of US foreign policy, and we will continue our strong partnership with our strongest ally on our shared priorities.”
The value the UK places on its relationship with the US means that such disapproval is acutely painful. In the second half of the 20th century, as the British empire was shrinking, it began to see its influence in Washington as a measure of its own global status.
However, according to historian and journalist Max Hastings, the UK’s obsession with the special relationship leads to a distorted picture of the country’s status on the world stage today.
“Britain is an extraordinarily nice middle-class power with, at good times, quite a successful economy. But it is no longer one of the most important countries in the world, ”he said.
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In recent years, Britain has fought alongside US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, has become a close security and intelligence partner, and has invested heavily in the US economy. Still, Hastings maintains that both sides were simply acting in their own national interest, not out of shared sentimentality.
‘Never kid yourself, the United States can do us a favor. That doesn’t mean there is any reason to have a complaint against the United States, it’s just realistic, ”he said.
“I believe it is a terrible British vice – especially a vice of British Prime Ministers – to believe that there is a special relationship that will make the Americans please us.”
With Biden focused on the coronavirus pandemic and supporting the U.S. economy, those dynamics are unlikely to change anytime soon.
“I think there will be some disappointment in the UK that the trade deal is less of a priority for Joe Biden’s government,” said Lewis L Keukens, former Deputy Head of Mission at the US Embassy in London and now a senior partner at Signum Global Advisors. , a business consultancy that focuses on the impact of politics and policy.
Still, there are opportunities for Biden and Johnson to work together. In their phone call, the two leaders discussed their partnership to address climate change and the pandemic, and expressed their shared commitment to NATO. Britain and the US also share similar views on the confrontation with Russia, Iran and China.
After the past four years, the UK may need to prove it is a worthy ally.
“Boris Johnson must be willing to go to Joe Biden and say, ‘This is how we can play a critical role in achieving your policy goals and addressing the challenges you want to address,” said L Keuken.
“But at the same time it gives us the opportunity to show that we are still a relevant player in the world.”