British Prime Minister Gordon Brown will not be "joined together at the hip" with US President George W. Bush, one of Brown's foreign ministers said in an interview published yesterday.
Lord Mark Malloch-Brown, recently appointed by Brown as the minister for Africa, Asia and the UN, appeared to put fresh strain on London-Washington relations, one day after International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander hinted at a change to transatlantic ties.
And national newspapers mulled over the signs of a more distant partnership and realigned foreign policy under the new prime minister, who took over from Tony Blair on June 27 and has been swift to stake out his own agenda.
Alexander told a Washington audience on Thursday that more emphasis should be placed on "soft power" and multilateralism.
Brown then got his chief of staff to write to all cabinet members on Friday to stress the importance of links with the US -- in what some commentators saw as a damage limitation exercise.
Brown is to meet Bush in Washington within weeks, after talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Malloch-Brown, the UN deputy secretary-general from April to December last year, said Britain needed a more "impartial" foreign policy, forging new links with France, Germany, India and China.
"It is very unlikely that the Brown-Bush relationship is going to go through the baptism of fire and therefore be joined together at the hip like the Blair-Bush relationship was," the Iraq war critic told the Daily Telegraph newspaper.
"That was a relationship born out of being war leaders together. There was an emotional intensity of being war leaders with much of the world against them. That is enough to put you on your knees and get you praying together," he said.
London needs to broaden its international partnerships beyond the "special relationship" with Washington, Malloch-Brown said.
"You need to build coalitions that are lateral, which go beyond the bilateral blinkers of the normal partners. My hope is that foreign policy will become much more impartial," he said.
"We have a whole set of emerging countries. There will be lots of exciting things to do with Sarkozy and Merkel and other European leaders as well as strengthening transatlantic relations," Malloch-Brown said.
"What I really hate is the effort to paint me as anti-American, but I am happy to be described as an anti-neo-con," he said.
He said Washington would find Brown a "sympathetic prime minister who wants a strong relationship."
In its editorial, the Daily Telegraph slammed Malloch-Brown for his "self-importance" and said the prime minister "must not allow his bien pensant [right-minded] namesake to sow suspicion in Washington."
It was not the only newspaper attempting to make sense of Alexander's speech and Brown's answer.
The Independent said Alexander's speech was "an impressive break with the past.
"It seems highly unlikely that Mr Brown will be the uncritical ally of the United States president that his predecessor was," it said.
The Guardian newspaper said a "grenade had been tossed" with Alexander's speech and the appointment of Malloch-Brown showed Brown intended to "rebalance Britain's foreign policy objectives" in a subtle shift.
"Steady, Gordon," said the Sun newspaper, reminding Brown that the US was Britain's "greatest ally."
The tabloid also blasted his "appalling decision" to appoint Malloch-Brown, "a man who delighted in savaging America in his last job at the UN and who has no place in the British government."
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese