"Special relationship"?
First face-to-face Biden-Johnson amid Brexit tensions
US President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
AFP - NICHOLAS KAMM, TOBY MELVILLE
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
Joe Biden arrived in the UK on Wednesday evening, June 9, for his first overseas trip as President of the United States.
Thursday afternoon June 10, the American leader will be received by Prime Minister Boris Johnson in Cornwall on the eve of a G7 summit devoted among other things to the Covid-19 pandemic and the climate crisis.
For the two men who are meeting for the first time, it is a question of reaffirming the strong links between their countries, taking into account the new post-Brexit reality.
Publicity
Read more
With our correspondent in London,
Muriel Delcroix
After Joe Biden's little inappreciative sentences with regard to Boris Johnson, whom he described as "mini-Trump", the challenge for the two men is to get off to a good start.
For this, the American president has already taken care to reaffirm the famous "
special relationship
" to which the British hold so much.
But the expression displeases Boris Johnson because, according to him, it places the United Kingdom in a position of weakness.
The Prime Minister, who wants to promote the concept of "
Global Britain
", sees it bigger.
Hence the idea of a new “Atlantic Charter” on the model of the historic declaration of Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill in 1941, which laid the foundations of a new international policy after the Second World War.
►
To read also: "America is back": Joe Biden in Europe for his first trip abroad
Post-Brexit commitments
In the 2021 version, the two leaders will pledge to "combine their forces to overcome the enormous challenges of the planet, whether it is the defense of democracy, security, the fight against climate change or the recovery from the pandemic ”.
Pragmatic, Joe Biden seems ready to play the game despite the imbalance between the two powers.
But in return, the US president could put pressure in private on London to honor its post-Brexit commitments in Northern Ireland.
A dispute that has poisoned its relations with the European Union for months.
►
To read also: Brexit: failure of discussions on the Northern Irish protocol
Newsletter
Receive all international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
google-play-badge_FR
UK
United States
Joe biden
Boris Johnson
On the same subject
Brexit: talks on the Northern Irish protocol fail
United Kingdom: post-Brexit trade agreement with three Schengen countries
Decryption
Is post-Brexit Britain turning in on itself?