Neil
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Prime minister says Britain can no longer rely on 60-year-old version of special relationship
David Cameron begins two days of talks with Barack Obama and senior US administration officials in Washington today, saying he is frustrated by Britain's preoccupation with the health of the "special relationship".
He urges everyone to stop taking the relationship's pulse every second, and recognise that in a modern world Britain and the US will search the globe for a variety of alliances.
His remarks, in an article in the Wall Street Journal, represent the most considered account of his view of the relationship, and are designed to frame a more mature alliance in which Britain recognises it can no longer rely solely on a 60-year-old version of the relationship.
Cameron says he has "never understood the British anxiety about whether the special relationship will survive. The US-UK relationship is strong, because it delivers for both of us. The alliance is not sustained by historical ties or blind loyalty. This is a partnership of choice that serves our national interests today." He faces potentially difficult talks on issues such as Afghanistan, and the global economy, including trade and the role of BP in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
Cameron privately believes that the Brown government became obsessed with the symbols of the relationship, and he wants instead to form a special relationship with India, a country he will visit with five other cabinet ministers and a host of business leaders next week.
In a break with Foreign Office practice, Cameron says he disagrees with the US on trade with China. He is due to meet Obama in the White House today, as well as meeting congressional leaders and Pentagon officials. The prime minister claims to see three different sets of misguided analysts ceaselessly fretting over the special relationship: "Those who question the whole concept; those who say it is no longer special; and those fixated on form rather than substance." The anti-American school is "plain wrong", in that America is a force for good, fighting terrorism, seeking peace in the Middle East, and championing the struggle against climate change.
Those who claim the relationship is no longer special due to Britain's inability to bring enough to the table, according to Cameron, ignore the strength of Britain's international relations, the reputation of its armed forces, and the co-operation between the two states' intelligence agencies. He reserves his strongest condemnation for those who "over-analyse the relationship's atmospherics", forensically compute the length of the meetings "whether it is a brush-by or a full bilateral", the number of mentions in a president's speech, the location and grandeur of the press conference, and whether the two leaders stand up or even sit down together. "This sort of Kremlinology might have had its place in interpreting our relations with Moscow during the cold war. It is absurd to apply it to our oldest and staunchest ally."
Britain should recognise it is the junior partner, he says, but behave as a country clear and strong in its values. It should recognise the US is strengthening its ties with rising powers, and do the same. "To do so is both pro-American and pro-British because it is the only way we will maintain our influence," he says.
The prime minister had no differences with the US over the release, by the Scottish executive, of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, convicted of the Lockerbie bombing: "I never saw the case for releasing him, and I think it was a very bad decision."
Last night the PM was forced to reject a request for a meeting with a concerned group of senators, blaming the tight schedule of the two-day tour, which will also take in a meeting with UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon in New York.
He will try to play down the BP issue, to prevent limitless compensation claims piling on the firm. But in a sign of the anxiety at the performance of Obama in some Tory circles, the former cabinet minister John Redwood wrote in his blog: "Mr Obama has declared war on BP, and sought to represent this global company as some kind of British destructive force in the USA. The president is getting a reputation for being anti business, and seems to like having a foreign business whipping boy. His interventions have not helped control the leak or deal with the disaster."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/jul/20/david-cameron-us-special-relationship
David Cameron begins two days of talks with Barack Obama and senior US administration officials in Washington today, saying he is frustrated by Britain's preoccupation with the health of the "special relationship".
He urges everyone to stop taking the relationship's pulse every second, and recognise that in a modern world Britain and the US will search the globe for a variety of alliances.
His remarks, in an article in the Wall Street Journal, represent the most considered account of his view of the relationship, and are designed to frame a more mature alliance in which Britain recognises it can no longer rely solely on a 60-year-old version of the relationship.
Cameron says he has "never understood the British anxiety about whether the special relationship will survive. The US-UK relationship is strong, because it delivers for both of us. The alliance is not sustained by historical ties or blind loyalty. This is a partnership of choice that serves our national interests today." He faces potentially difficult talks on issues such as Afghanistan, and the global economy, including trade and the role of BP in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
Cameron privately believes that the Brown government became obsessed with the symbols of the relationship, and he wants instead to form a special relationship with India, a country he will visit with five other cabinet ministers and a host of business leaders next week.
In a break with Foreign Office practice, Cameron says he disagrees with the US on trade with China. He is due to meet Obama in the White House today, as well as meeting congressional leaders and Pentagon officials. The prime minister claims to see three different sets of misguided analysts ceaselessly fretting over the special relationship: "Those who question the whole concept; those who say it is no longer special; and those fixated on form rather than substance." The anti-American school is "plain wrong", in that America is a force for good, fighting terrorism, seeking peace in the Middle East, and championing the struggle against climate change.
Those who claim the relationship is no longer special due to Britain's inability to bring enough to the table, according to Cameron, ignore the strength of Britain's international relations, the reputation of its armed forces, and the co-operation between the two states' intelligence agencies. He reserves his strongest condemnation for those who "over-analyse the relationship's atmospherics", forensically compute the length of the meetings "whether it is a brush-by or a full bilateral", the number of mentions in a president's speech, the location and grandeur of the press conference, and whether the two leaders stand up or even sit down together. "This sort of Kremlinology might have had its place in interpreting our relations with Moscow during the cold war. It is absurd to apply it to our oldest and staunchest ally."
Britain should recognise it is the junior partner, he says, but behave as a country clear and strong in its values. It should recognise the US is strengthening its ties with rising powers, and do the same. "To do so is both pro-American and pro-British because it is the only way we will maintain our influence," he says.
The prime minister had no differences with the US over the release, by the Scottish executive, of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, convicted of the Lockerbie bombing: "I never saw the case for releasing him, and I think it was a very bad decision."
Last night the PM was forced to reject a request for a meeting with a concerned group of senators, blaming the tight schedule of the two-day tour, which will also take in a meeting with UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon in New York.
He will try to play down the BP issue, to prevent limitless compensation claims piling on the firm. But in a sign of the anxiety at the performance of Obama in some Tory circles, the former cabinet minister John Redwood wrote in his blog: "Mr Obama has declared war on BP, and sought to represent this global company as some kind of British destructive force in the USA. The president is getting a reputation for being anti business, and seems to like having a foreign business whipping boy. His interventions have not helped control the leak or deal with the disaster."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/jul/20/david-cameron-us-special-relationship