Washington and London launch a new economic partnership with China

This is not the free trade agreement London dreamed of, but British Prime Minister and US President Joe Biden on Thursday announced a new economic partnership and celebrated a renewed friendship. An "Atlantic declaration" presented to the White House by the two leaders provides, among other things, for enhanced cooperation in the defense industry, in civil nuclear power and in the supply of metals essential to the energy transition. On this last point, Rishi Sunak has obtained from the White House that British industrialists benefit in part from Joe Biden's gigantic subsidy plan, the "Inflation Reduction Act", which unapologetically promotes "made in America".

'New era'

In terms of defense, the US president promised to open access to the American market to British industrialists in order to boost the development of sophisticated weapons such as hypersonic missiles. The agreement between the two countries, tailored to deal with China, also covers artificial intelligence, energy security, and the reliability of supply chains. "We face new challenges to international stability: authoritarian states such as Russia and China, worrying technologies, non-state actors and transnational issues such as climate change," the statement read. "We have no closer allies" than the British, Joe Biden said from the Oval Office, saying, thumbs up, that the relationship traditionally described as "special" between the two countries was "still very good".

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It is in any case much more fluid than in the time of Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, to hear the exchanges of pleasantries of the two men at the White House. "We will put our values at the center of our action for the British and Americans," said Rishi Sunak at the beginning of the discussion with the US president. London dreamed of signing a trade agreement with Washington after Brexit, but had to give it up in the face of a Biden administration that has turned its back on the dogma of free trade, and which now closely links economic interests to strategic considerations. On a lighter note, Rishi Sunak thanked Joe Biden for hosting him at Blair House, a residence near the White House.

Negotiations to run for the head of NATO

And he promised with a smile to behave better than his illustrious predecessor Winston Churchill, who had been welcomed into the White House in 1941, and whose eccentricities had, according to historians, greatly upset First Lady Eleonor Roosevelt. Joe Biden and Rishi Sunak have already met several times, on the sidelines of international summits or to launch a major military collaboration with Australia. The United States has repeatedly touted British commitment to supporting Ukraine. The subject obviously remains important, shortly after the partial destruction of a major dam in Ukraine, and at a time of mounting speculation about the counter-offensive promised by Kiev.

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According to several British media, the British Prime Minister wants to take advantage of the good understanding found to push Joe Biden the candidacy of his Minister of Defense Ben Wallace at the head of NATO. The US president is in full diplomatic negotiations before the annual summit of the Western defense alliance, to be held next month in Vilnius (Lithuania), during which the West will want to send a strong message on Ukraine. He will receive on Monday the current secretary general, the Norwegian Jens Stoltenberg, whose mandate ends in October and for whom Washington has nothing but praise. Joe Biden also received last Monday the Prime Minister of Denmark Mette Frederiksen, whose name is circulating to possibly become the first woman to lead NATO.