“It’s great to talk to President @ JoeBiden tonight,” Johnson wrote in a tweet earlier Saturday. “I look forward to deepening the long-standing alliance between our two countries as we get a green and sustainable recovery from COVID-19.”
Johnson congratulated Biden on his inauguration and praised that Biden had decided to reintroduce the Paris climate agreement, the COVAX vaccine extension program and the World Health Organization, Johnson’s office said in a reading of the call. said.
“They have also discussed the benefits of a possible free agreement between our two countries, and our Prime Minister reiterates his intention to resolve existing trade issues as soon as possible,” Johnson’s office said in the statement. “The leaders have built on the British history of the United Kingdom and the United States’ long history of security and defense cooperation and their common values in the promotion of human rights and the protection of democracy.”
Johnson, a conservative populist and a one-time ally of former President Donald Trump, tried to distance himself from their relationship after Biden won the presidential election, with Johnson making a statement condemning Trump’s actions. amid the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. .
The Johnson-backed Brexit has changed the long-standing “special relationship” between the US and the UK
“When you wanted to do something with Europe, you made the first or perhaps second call to London,” Charles Kupchan, who served as a senior European Security Council official in the Obama administration and Clinton administration, told POLITICO earlier .
In 2021, ‘you are still going to call London, but the call will be lower in the queue. “Britain no longer has a seat at the table,” he said because of Brexit.
“Biden wants to strengthen and renew ties with the EU, and Britain is not going to be a part of it,” a person familiar with Biden’s thinking previously told POLITICO.
Trump and former British Prime Minister Theresa May have had a difficult relationship. May recently said she “never knew what to expect” from Trump, who was also a regular critic of the EU bloc before Britain’s exit on 31 January.
Trump abruptly canceled a planned trip to London in May in January 2018. When he visited May for the first time, he was highly critical of May in an interview with a tabloid newspaper published during the trip. Johnson succeeded May in July 2019 as leader of the Conservative Party and prime minister.
On Friday, Biden spoke with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
The calls come as Biden tries to begin his quest to “restore dignified leadership at home and respected leadership on the world stage” following Trump’s America First approach to international relations.