Biden, Johnson strike convivial tone in 1st assembly – KIRO 7 Information Seattle

CARBIS BAY, England – (AP) – President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson met for the first time on Thursday to highlight their nations’ famous “special relationship”, but against the backdrop of political and personal differences.

Biden hopes to use his first overseas trip as president to reassure European allies that the U.S. has shed the transactional tendencies of Donald Trump’s tenure and is once again a reliable partner. Tensions could simmer beneath the surface, but the leaders immediately adopted a tone of conviviality.

“I told the Prime Minister that we have something in common. We both got married well beyond our ward, ”joked Biden after a highly choreographed walk with her spouses.

Johnson laughed and said he would “not deviate from it,” but then seemed to imply that he was only trying to improve relations with his American counterpart.

“I’m not going to contradict you,” said Johnson, “or whatever.”

But there are areas where there is disagreement. The President strongly opposed the Brexit movement, the British exodus from the European Union that Johnson campaigned for, and expressed great concern about the future of Northern Ireland. And Biden once called the British leader a “physical and emotional clone” of Trump.

The UK government has worked hard to overcome this impression, highlighting Johnson’s commonality with Biden on issues such as climate change and his support for international institutions. However, Johnson, the host of the Group of Seven Summit that will follow his meeting with Biden, was frustrated by the lack of a new trade deal with the United States.

Prior to their formal talks, the two men looked back on famous wartime predecessors and examined documents related to the Atlantic Charter, a declaration signed by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and US President Franklin D. Roosevelt in August 1941, which contained common goals for the world after World War II was formulated, including freer trade, disarmament and the right to self-determination of all people.

Johnson noted that the charter laid the foundation for the United Nations and NATO.

“Yes, I know,” said Biden, who later clenched his fist when he – mistakenly – suggested that Neville Chamberlain include a reference to unions on the document, an unlikely salute to the disgraced appeaser on the eve of the war.

The guides had planned to visit the spectacular island of St. Michael’s Mount, but the trip was canceled due to bad weather. Instead, they met over the beach at the G-7 compound in Carbis Bay, stared out to sea, and exchanged joke articles.

Both couples – Johnson is newly married – held hands as they walked. “LOVE” was embroidered on the upper back of First Lady Jill Biden’s black jacket – a fashion step that was reminiscent of the decision of her predecessor Melania Trump to wear a jacket that said, “I really don’t care, don’t I?” on the back during a 2018 trip to a border town with Texas.

The First Lady told reporters that the president was “over-prepared” for his meetings during his week in Europe, including a summit with Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

“He’s been studying for weeks and still works today,” she said. “Joe loves foreign policy.”

Leaders were expected to announce a new task force between the US and the UK to work on resuming travel between the two nations, according to a White House official. Most travel between the two nations has been banned since March 2020.

Both sides have publicly stressed that the meeting is about reaffirming ties between long-standing allies in a week in which Biden will seek to rally the West to stave off Russian interference and publicly demonstrate that he is economically involved China can compete.

National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan described Biden’s initial talks with Johnson as “warm” and “constructive” and downplayed any differences between the two nations’ goals.

“You’ve been very in business,” Sullivan said earlier this week. “And I assume that their meeting will only cover the promenade. I really mean a wide range of subjects where the two of them and the US and the UK are on par. “

Biden, who is very proud of his Irish roots, has warned that nothing should undermine the Good Friday 1998 Northern Ireland peace agreement. Some on the British side viewed Biden with caution because of his heritage. White House officials said the United States has no intention of participating in the negotiations and that Biden will not lecture Johnson but will press for a swift resolution.

For the border between Northern Ireland, which belongs to the United Kingdom, and Ireland, a new regulation was necessary after Brexit, as the European Union stipulates certain goods and does not allow others at all. Ahead of a June 30 deadline, ongoing negotiations on goods – including sausages – have been controversial and have caught the attention of the White House.

The two leaders were also expected to discuss climate change, the coronavirus pandemic, creating an infrastructure finance program for developing countries, Afghanistan and a refresher on the 80-year-old charter between the two nations, Sullivan said. There were also plans to set up a bilateral commission to study and fight cancer. White House officials suggested reading it not as another Cold War-era document, but as a path to an increasingly complex, interconnected globe.

But Trump’s presence was still felt on Thursday. Johnson and Trump seemed like kindred spirits for a while, both riding a wave of populism that brought about Brexit in 2016 and turned the American political landscape upside down.

For his part, Biden has voiced his distrust of Johnson, who once delivered a Trump-like insult to President Barack Obama, saying that Biden’s former boss was “half-Kenyan” and had an ancestral dislike of Britain.

Since the Second World War, the transatlantic “special relationship” has been sustained by a common language, common interests, military cooperation and cultural affection. Sometimes this was backed up by close personal ties, such as the friendship between Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan in the 1980s or between Tony Blair and Bill Clinton in the 1990s.

Brexit could put these bonds to the test. The USA still appreciates the role of Great Britain as a European economic and military power and as a member of the secret service alliance “Five Eyes”. But Biden has made it clear that he intends to rebuild bridges with the EU, a frequent target of Trump’s anger. This suggests that Berlin, Brussels and Paris, not London, will be in the foreground.

After officially leaving the EU in January, Great Britain had hoped for a swift trade agreement with the USA. The change of government in Washington leaves the prospect of an agreement uncertain.

And maybe there is another, if admittedly small, obstacle to maintaining the “special relationship” – the sentence itself.

Johnson said he did not appreciate the US president’s “special relationship” because it appeared needy and weak to the prime minister. Johnson’s spokesman said this week: “The Prime Minister has previously said that he prefers not to use that term, but that in no way detracts from the meaning with which we view our relationship with the US, our closest ally.”

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Lawless reports from London. Madhani reported from Mildenhall, England. Associate press writer Josh Boak in Baltimore contributed to this report.

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