Straight-talking or gaffe-prone? New British Prime Minister David Cameron has divided opinion with some unusually direct public comments on foreign policy from Pakistan and Gaza to the US.
Cameron seems to have patched things up with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari after he accused Pakistan of promoting “the export of terror” on a visit to India last month.
The pair insisted relations between Britain and Pakistan were “unbreakable” and vowed to step up cooperation on security after meeting on Friday for the first time since the controversy erupted.
However, the dust has not yet settled on other controversial remarks made by Cameron in his first visits to world leaders since taking office as head of a coalition government in May.
While in Turkey, he called Gaza a “prison camp” and said he was “angry” at the slow pace that Turkey’s bid for EU membership was progressing, seen as a jibe at France and Germany.
He also acknowledged that Britain was the “junior partner” in relations with the US ahead of a trip to the White House.
Last week, in an apparent slip of the tongue, he even suggested that Iran had a nuclear weapon — although Downing Street later insisted he was only talking about Tehran’s pursuit of one.
Commentators have suggested that Cameron might be better off conveying his stronger opinions in private, rather than through very public sound bites.
Cameron defended his comments on Pakistan by saying it was important “to speak frankly about these things to countries that are your friends” and this attitude also seems to extend to other nations.
And some experts suggest that, while there may have been some gaffes, Cameron’s straight-talking could be linked to a shake-up in UK diplomacy.
The prime minister wants to see greater emphasis on boosting the UK’s ties with emerging economic powers like India and Turkey.
“I think there’s a genuine shift of emphasis,” Chris Brown, a professor of international relations at the London School of Economics, told reporters. “I think the feeling ... is that the last government had a rather exaggerated view of Britain’s importance within the world and they want to say ‘look, it’s not like that, we’re a medium power.’”
Whatever the motivation, Cameron’s approach seems to have found favor with the British public — for now at least.
Asked to sum up their view of his comments abroad, 49 percent agreed that he was “being plain speaking and other countries will respect that” while 27 percent said he was “being a loudmouth and risks upsetting relations with our allies” in a YouGov/Sun newspaper poll released earlier this month.
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