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Boris has chance to build on submarine coup with Biden talks


Published : 19 Sep 2021 09:00 PM

]British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will land in the US this week on his first trip outside of Europe since the start of the pandemic, with his most critical relationship - that with President Joe Biden - at a delicate juncture.

A three-way deal to supply nuclear submarines to Australia announced this week has reinforced the idea of a special bond, underpinned by US-Britain security interests, even though the two men have not always seen eye to eye.

Mr Johnson now has a number of other tricky topics with which he needs help from the United States, including the crisis in Afghanistan and, especially, how to accelerate momentum behind a stumbling global environmental summit that Britain will host next month.

On Monday (Sept 20), the Prime Minister will use a breakout meeting at the United Nations General Assembly in New York to urge wealthy nations to stump up more cash to fight climate change.

He will then head to Washington for a meeting with Mr Biden that will come under scrutiny - not only because of the British media's obsession with the "special relationship" immortalised by Ms Margaret Thatcher and Mr Ronald Reagan in the 1980s.

There is also the ghost of Mr Donald Trump, who openly admired Mr Johnson but humiliated his predecessor Theresa May.