Ukraine, NATO and the economy will be discussed, but British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, received at the White House on Thursday by Joe Biden, came above all to celebrate a rediscovered friendship between the two countries, small gifts to support.
“We don’t have closer allies,” Joe Biden said from the Oval Office, saying the “special” relationship between the two countries was “very good.”
A friendly welcome, like a much more fluid bilateral relationship than in the days of Boris Johnson and Liz Truss.
“We will put our values ??at the center of what we do for the British and the Americans,” Mr Sunak said as he began his meeting with the American president.
Joe Biden, very proud of his Irish roots, will be reminded by his guest that he also has distant British ancestry.
Rishi Sunak planned to give her a copy of a treatise on shipboard discipline, written in the 19th century by her ancestor Christopher Biden. The present of the White House is not yet known.
Rishi Sunak is received as a distinguished guest and hosted at Blair House, a residence close to the White House where foreign dignitaries sometimes stay.
Alongside Joe Biden in the Oval Office, the Prime Minister joked about Winston Churchill’s visit to Washington during the war, when his illustrious predecessor wandered the White House, drinking whiskey with Roosevelt, which annoyed the First lady.
After this interview, the two leaders must hold a joint press conference (scheduled start at 5:30 p.m. GMT), which is not at all systematic when Joe Biden has guests.
The two men have already seen each other several times, on the sidelines of international summits or to launch a major military collaboration with Australia.
The United States has repeatedly praised the commitment of the British in supporting Ukraine.
There is no doubt that the subject must be discussed extensively in the Oval Office, shortly after the partial destruction of a major dam in Ukraine, and at a time when speculation on the counter-offensive promised by Kiev is mounting.
Washington also appreciates Rishi Sunak’s firm line against China.
The Prime Minister should take advantage of this good agreement to affirm his ambitions in terms of the regulation of artificial intelligence, an area that is still fallow, even if the United States and the European Union are already discussing it.
Rishi Sunak announced from Washington that the first World AI Summit will be held in London next fall.
The British Prime Minister said he was “delighted” with the support that he said the White House would give to this initiative.
According to several British media, he should also, with Joe Biden, push the candidacy of his Minister of Defense Ben Wallace at the head of NATO.
The American president is in full diplomatic negotiations before the annual summit of the Western defense alliance, which will be held next month in Vilnius (Lithuania), during which Westerners will want to send a strong message on Ukraine.
He will receive on Monday the current secretary general, the Norwegian Jens Stoltenberg, whose mandate ends in October and for whom Washington has nothing but praise.
Joe Biden had also received last Monday the Prime Minister of Denmark Mette Frederiksen, whose name is circulating to possibly become the first woman to lead NATO.
On trade, the British leader has given up on quickly achieving what has long been a primary objective for the United Kingdom after Brexit, namely signing a free trade agreement with the United States.
Like other foreign leaders, he will come to plead for exceptions to Joe Biden’s policy of industrial sovereignty, manifested in a major investment law called the “Inflation Reduction Act” (IRA).
In particular, London would like preferential treatment for car manufacturers in the highly strategic field of electric batteries.
08/06/2023 18:33:45 – Washington (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
