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Wednesday, 22 July 2020_US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in London for talks with UK leaders on what he called ‘shared security challenges.’ He will be travelling to Denmark at the end of his two-day visit. This report takes a look at some of the issues on his agenda.
He arrived at an unnamed airport late Monday donning a face covering decorated with the stars and stripes to reaffirm what he called on his twitter account ‘the special relationship’ with Washington’s closest ally. In his meetings with the British Prime Minister and foreign secretary, he praised the UK government for its measures against China, and regarding Hong Kong.
Just last week, the UK government announced it was removing Chinese tech giant Huawei from the country's 5G mobile network, to the satisfaction of the Americans and indignation of the Chinese.
Pompeo, a US army veteran, is also leading a diplomatic offensive aimed at extending a UN arms embargo on Iran that expires in October. The end of the arms embargo is one of the few face-saving benefits in the nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers that the US withdrew from in 2018.
What may also make it to the agenda of the talks, an emotional plea from the grieving mother of teenage motorcyclist Harry Dunn, killed in august last year when he crashed into the car belonging to the wife of a US intelligence official, who then fled to the US and claimed diplomatic immunity.
From Hong Kong to 5G, the British government seems to be following Washington’s lead in foreign policy. And critics of the phrase "special relationship" - first coined by Winston Churchill in 1946 say Britain should have learned its lessons from following the US into the devastating 2003 invasion of Iraq and perhaps say NO to Washington where the two countries’ interests diverge.
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