Is US-UK Special Relationship Under Threat Under Trump Presidency?
24 January 2017By Dr. Abdul Ruff
Colachal
Like US-Russia relations, the bilateral ties between USA and UK also play
important role in stabilizing international relations.
UN veto members America and Great Britain have maintained special relationship
for decades, notwithstanding changing governments in both western capitalist
nations. Arrival of ultra nationalist Donald trump on US political arena
directly as US presidency candidate with his ideas of greatness for USA alone
has sent cold waves even in UK which is known to toe the US line of thinking
on all aspects- even on Palestine issue well where both opposed Palestine and
supported Israel for ages since the Jewish state was impose on Mideast by both
in 1948 and quickly made a full-fledged UN member- but now both indirectly
support the idea of establishment of Palestine state and condemn the illegal
Jewish settlement proliferation in Palestine.
However, the British doubts over Trump approach towards its closest ally looks
untenable as President decided to receive at White House British premier as
his first foreign guest. Thus the British PM Theresa May has won the race to
be the first foreign leader to meet President Donald Trump in Washington. But
her trip to the US capital is anything but a victory lap.
Theresa May gets a warm welcome at the Republican retreat and in the White
House. Trump has already pronounced Britain ''very special!'' in one of his
tweets. He has also has restored to the Oval Office a bust of Britains World
War II Prime Minister Winston Churchill that was removed while Barack Obama
was president, to the chagrin of some patriotically minded Britons. Mays
office says she intends to admire the bust when she visits the White House.
Shell also give Trump, whose mother was born in Scotland, a Quaich, a
traditional Scottish cup of friendship.
Of course, history has proved that political positions are not always a guide
to personal relationships, however. Former PM Tony Blair and Republican
President George W. Bush formed a friendship that surprised many — and led
Britain into the divisive, costly War on Iraq. May and Trump could hardly be
more different. He is a brash, spotlight-loving businessman whose closest
British ally to date has been the bantering former UK Independence Party
leader Nigel Farage. She is a small-town vicars daughter who has risen to the
top of politics through prudence and by avoiding personal ostentation or
controversy. Her most flamboyant feature is a fondness for leopard-print
shoes.
Apparently, Theresa Mays staff worked feverishly to secure the two-day trip,
which includes a meeting with the president on Friday at the White House.
British officials hope it will help cement the UKs place as a pre-eminent
American ally and provide proof of what Britons — more often than Americans —
call the trans-Atlantic ''special relationship.''
Trump has also been generally cool on trade agreements. He is pulling the USA
out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership — a deal Obama worked hard on — and has
promised to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada
and Mexico. In other challenges for May, Trump has called NATO ''obsolete'' and
called the EU ''basically a vehicle for Germany'' that Britain was ''smart'' to
leave.
Excerpts from the speech were released in advance by PM Mays office. Mays
seeming embrace of Trump — in the wake of his commitment to building a Mexico
border wall and other recent edicts — drew criticism from her domestic
opponents. UK PM Theresa May insists shes up to the task of being Americas
steadfast but plain-speaking friend, telling British lawmakers that ''I am not
afraid to speak frankly to a president of the United States.'' Her message in
the USA will include elements of gentle history lesson, as she urges the two
nations to ''lead together.'' In a speech to Republican legislators in
Philadelphia, May plans to say that the trans-Atlantic relationship ''made the
modern world'' and built the institutions that have underpinned the global
order since the end of World War II.
Donald Trump welcomed the UK decision to leave the EU and even asked other
European nations also to follow suit. Linking Britains vote to leave the
28-nation European Union with the win of political outsider Trump, shell say
that ''as you renew your nation just as we renew ours, we have the opportunity
— indeed the responsibility — to renew the special relationship for this new
age.'' Former Labour Party leader Ed Miliband tweeted: ''Today he starts on
wall, praises waterboarding, bullies climate scientists. She says they can
lead together. Surely decent Tories feel queasy?''
The effusive tone coming from Trumps White House marked a change from the
Obama years. ''Obama has been a more Asia-Pacific-focused president (with his
Asia pivot theme) so this is a return — at least in rhetoric — to the good old
days of the USA-UK special relationship,'' she said. ''But its very difficult
to know exactly what Theresa May is going to get out of this other than warm
words.''
While former President Obama warned that Britain outside the EU would go to
the ''back of the queue'' for a US trade deal, Trump told the Times of London
newspaper that a trade deal could be done quickly and he backs it. Experts
argue that any talks in Washington this week would be preliminary, since
Britain is barred by EU rules from substantial negotiations on new trade
agreements until it actually leaves the bloc — which is likely to be in 2019
at the earliest. And May will face strong domestic opposition to any deal that
forces Britain to bring its standards into line with the USA on things like
genetically modified food — currently banned under EU rules — or the private
sectors role in health care.
May told the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last week that
although the UK is leaving the EU, ''it remains overwhelmingly and compellingly
in Britains national interest'' that the bloc still succeed. And while Trump
said in his inauguration speech that ''from this day forward, its going to be
only America first,'' May vowed in Davos to stand up for free markets, free
trade and globalization.
Britain needs more than words from the USA as it prepares to start divorce
talks with the European Union. May has said the UK will be leaving both the
bloc and its single market in goods and services, which now stretches over 28
countries including Britain and involves half a billion people. By leaving,
the UK is gaining the opportunity to strike new trade deals around the globe,
and the USA, as the top destination for British exports, is one of the biggest
prizes around.
Obviously, there is big queue of foreign signatories, especially presidents
and premiers, seeking through their diplomatic channels, an appointment with
president Trump and he would go in his own way in picking his guests. In fact
many leaders are in waiting list to receive a presidential call form
Washington. Many leaders around the world — who will make their own visits to
Washington in the coming months — will be watching closely to see if they do.
The US-UK leaders try to create the chemistry that they need to create. When
leaders of governments really want to make it work, they can make it work,
anyway.
PM May faces the challenge of persuading a president who has vowed to put
''America first'' of the benefits of free trade with Britain and the vital role
of the 28-nation NATO military alliance. And she must build a working
relationship with a populist president whose protectionist outlook and loose
way with facts have alarmed many European politicians, including some of Mays
own allies.
As it stands, the top English allies do not face any real threat to their
historic ties. Meanwhile, as President Donald Trump is gaining diplomatic
niceties in office, the US-British relations have no reason to stumble even
during the Trump era.
A businessman is always a business man and business cannot thrive without
essential diplomatic skills-
And President Trump knows that.
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