US President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron were due to hold talks yesterday at a time when the ongoing controversy over BP PLC could test the vaunted “special relationship” between their countries.
They were expected to discuss BP’s role in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and whether the British energy giant exerted any influence in the release of the Lockerbie bomber from a Scottish prison last year — issues that have complicated transatlantic ties.
Cameron’s first visit to Washington as British prime minister comes amid a US backlash against BP. With an eye to British pensioners and other investors at home, he has pledged to stand up for the embattled company.
Aides to both leaders say the talks aim to build on a personal rapport they struck up at last month’s G20 summit in Canada and that the agenda will focus more on the war in Afghanistan, the global economy and the Middle East.
However, BP and its role in the worst oil spill in US history loom large. Differences over BP’s treatment and over approaches to economic recovery raise fresh questions about an historic Anglo-American alliance already past its heyday.
Scoffing at “endless British preoccupation with the health of the special relationship,” Cameron wrote in the Wall Street Journal that he would be “hard-headed and realistic” about US ties and said both countries must also strengthen bonds with rising powers like China and India.
Under heavy criticism over the Gulf disaster, BP faces demands from US lawmakers for an official inquiry into whether it had a hand in the release of the Libyan convicted in the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am flight over Lockerbie, Scotland.
BP has confirmed it lobbied the British government in 2007 over a prisoner transfer deal because it was concerned a slow resolution would hurt an offshore drilling deal with Libya.
However, the company said it was not involved in talks on the release of Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, sentenced to life for the deaths of 270 people, including 189 US citizens.
On the eve of Cameron’s visit, the British government reiterated that BP had no role in the decision to free Megrahi and said it had no plans to re-examine the release, which took place despite fierce US objections.
Scottish authorities said they freed the intelligence officer because he was terminally ill and they believed he had only three months to live. He is still alive in Libya.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told senators she was urging Scottish and British authorities to review the case.
Cameron’s aides have sought to play down the issue. He said in a BBC interview that, as opposition leader at the time, he thought the release was “utterly wrong.”
His visit also comes as US lawmakers consider a range of rules that could require tougher safety standards on offshore drilling or bar companies like BP from new offshore leases.
Cameron has made clear he will defend BP, saying it must remain “strong and stable” to make good on its promise to compensate oil spill victims and for the sake of employees and people with pension funds invested in the company in both countries.
Obama, whose approval ratings have been undercut by public anger over the disaster, has taken a hard line with BP, although his rhetoric has softened recently amid criticism his administration had gone too in bashing the company.
‘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
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in