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.
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