10 Wednesday August 21, 2019
WORLD
P
rime Minister Boris Johnson
makes his debut on the global
stage at the G7 summit this
weekend, where all eyes will be on
his chumminess with US President
Donald Trump.
The summit in France opens on
Saturday, the one-month anniversary
of the gaff e-prone Brexit cheerleader
and former-foreign-secretary-turned
premier.
“What we’ll make of this is wheth-
er Boris Johnson manages to be a
diff erent person on the world stage
than he managed as foreign secre-
tary – because he was a disappoint-
ment,” Bronwen Maddox, director of
the Institute for Government think
tank, told AFP.
She said his 2016-18 spell as Brit-
ain’s foreign minister was marked by
jokes, blunders and little in the way
of achievements.
His meeting with Trump will be
one of the highlights to watch for
at the August 24-26 summit in the
glitzy resort of Biarritz on France’s
southwest coast.
Johnson and Trump come from
elite educational institutions that
lend them an aura of elite invincibil-
ity. There is more to them than the
subtle commonality in their names- Donald John Trump and Boris
Johnson. The US leader traces his
ancestry to Scotland, which is part of
the UK, while Johnson was born in
New York in the US.
“It is going to be very signifi cant
the type of message he sends,” said
Anna Nadibaidze, a research and
communications associate at the
Open Europe think tank.
It will signal “where the UK wants
to go forward after Brexit,” she said.
‘Britain’s Trump’
Trump says he is eager to meet
Johnson, a fellow maverick who
enjoys his approval. The pair have
spoken several times by phone sinceJohnson became prime minister on
July 24.
Trump’s fi rst bilateral meeting
will be with Johnson, ahead of other
leaders including the summit’s
host, French President Emmanuel
Macron.
Before traveling to Biarritz,
Johnson is set to meet German
Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin
on Wednesday and Macron in Paris
on Thursday.
Dubbed “Britain’s Trump” by
some, Johnson shares with the US
leader a deep skepticism of the Euro-
pean Union.
They are both divisive fi gures
in their respective countries, men
who play loosely with facts, espouse
populist positions and enjoy provok-
ing their opponents.
Johnson rose to power by present-
ing himself as the savior of Brexit.
He wants to sign an
ambitious trade
agreement with
Washington
after Britain
leaves theEU, as an antidote to the major eco-
nomic shock that Brexit is predicted
to cause if Britain leaves without a
divorce deal.
Britain is due to quit the bloc on
October 31, regardless of whether
Johnson manages to secure an exit
deal with Brussels – though he
stressed in a letter Monday to EU
President Donald Tusk that conclud-
ing a divorce deal was his govern-
ment’s “highest priority.”Domestic front
Success on the international stage
would allow Johnson to assert his
leadership on the domestic front,
Maddox said, while a disappoint-
ing turn at Biarritz could leave him
weakened as he prepares to face a
likely vote of no confi dence after
parliament returns on September 3.
Such a move could trigger a gen-
eral election.
“If Boris can look like a world
leader it gives him an edge,”
Maddox said.
However, a swift free
trade agreement withWashington will come at a price,
experts warned, suggesting it may
entail changes in British foreign
policy.
“Trump has shown a clear
tendency to view trade as a zero
sum proposition – so why he would
suddenly become very nice and
generous with the UK is not entirely
clear,” said Dana Allin of the Interna-
tional Institute for Strategic Studies
(IISS) think tank.
In the short term, a no-deal Brexit
risks souring relations with Europe,
which will damage the eventual
shape of the new relationship be-
tween London and Brussels, he said.
“It’s dangerous,” said Allin, the
IISS’s senior fellow for US foreign
policy and transatlantic aff airs.
“It’s also a delusion: You are not
going to compensate for the damage
to economic relations with the rest
of the EU with some magical trade
agreement with an America that is
thousands of miles away.”
Open Europe’s Nadibaidze said
striking a close relationship with the
United States may require Britain to
make “compromises at home” and
“diverge a bit more from Europe” on
major international issues.
“A lot will depend on the terms”
of Brexit, she said.
So far, London has stuck with
its European partners over the Iran
nuclear deal – the United States has
walked out – even though Britain is
joining in with a US maritime secu-
rity mission in the Gulf.
Johnson “faces a dilemma,” said
Charles Grant, director of the Centre
for European Reform think tank.
On topics such as Iran and
climate change, he is closer to Brus-
sels than Washington, and “there
is a limit on how far he can go” in
distancing himself from the EU,
Grant said.AFPMore than
chums
u Boris Johnson to make big-time
debut in Biarritz
Page Editor:
xiewenting@
globaltimes.com.cnBritain’s Prime Minister Boris
Johnson gestures as he speaks
outside 10 Downing Street in
London. Photo: IC