It is a stroke of good luck for Boris Johnson that Britain is hosting this year’s G7 summit. As chair of the club for rich democracies, the prime minister’s centrality to the proceedings is guaranteed. He is first in line to meet Joe Biden, who flies in to Cornwall on Wednesday for his first official foreign trip as US president.
The choreography flatters Mr Johnson, casting him as America’s point man in Europe. That is the role that the UK traditionally sees for itself in transatlantic relations. The truth is more complicated. Leaving the EU removes Britain’s influence in Brussels, which diminishes its utility to Washington as a bridge to the rest of the continent. President Biden sees Brexit as strategic ineptitude, sowing gratuitous division among countries that the US would rather see united.
It does not help that Mr Johnson also exudes contempt for Britain’s nearest neighbours. He has prioritised nationalistic bravado over compromise. That has been noticed in Washington, especially as regards Ireland – the country from which the current US president’s ancestors originated and to which he has a strong cultural attachment. » | Editorial | Wednesday, June 9, 2021
