President Barack Obama pledges to strengthen 'special relationship'
President Obama pledged to strengthen the special relationship with Britain yesterday, as he backed Gordon Brown’s calls for international action to stimulate the world economy and clean up the banking system.
Mr Obama said that there was a link and bond with Britain that “would not break” as Mr Brown secured his commitment to making next month’s G20 summit in London a success. Many ministers regard the gathering as Mr Brown’s last hope of mounting a political revival before the election.
Speaking to the press in the Oval Office after an hour of talks, which was followed by an hour of discussion over lunch, Mr Obama said that Britain’s friendship and support for the US in Iraq and Afghanistan would not be forgotten. Neither would the sacrifices made by “the young men and women of Great Britain”.
Mr Obama’s Kenyan heritage, which includes a grandfather who was detained by the British during the Mau-Mau rebellion, has led to speculation that he will be less warm to Britain than some of his predecessors. But the President pointed out that his mother’s family came from Britain originally, adding: “This notion that somehow there is any lessening of that special relationship is misguided.”
He added: “The relationship is not only special and strong but will only get stronger as time goes on.” It is “not just important to me, it’s important to the American people”, he said.
Mr Brown is the first European leader to hold talks with Mr Obama since his inauguration in January. Afterwards they joked in front of the media and appeared to have a warm relationship, although it seemed more formal than that between Tony Blair and George Bush.
They quipped about each other’s relative prowess at tennis and basketball and Mr Obama said that they had in common “spectacular wives and wonderful children”.
Without a committed American response the G20 summit faces severe difficulties, but Downing Street has been heartened in recent days by a sudden rush of papers from the White House on the subject, after early worries that the Obama team was preoccupied with domestic issues.
During the talks Mr Brown won Mr Obama’s agreement to a “global new deal”, with the world’s biggest economies agreeing on a new regulatory system for banks, fiscal stimulus packages to boost growth and action to deal with “shadow banks” as well as regulatory and tax havens. Mr Obama said that he wanted the summit next month to look at how the G20 countries can “in a co-ordinated fashion, stimulate their economies” and ensure that there was a common front in making progress on banking.
He said Mr Brown had taken the helm of the British economy at a very difficult time, adding: “We have got a shared world view that allows us to work together very effectively.”
The President said that there would be no swift solution to the global economic crisis, but he held out the hope that co-ordinated action could get the world back on the path to prosperity.
“All of these steps, I think, are going to slowly build confidence but it is not going to happen yet,” he said. “We together have dug a very deep hole for ourselves. There were a lot of bad decisions that were made. We are cleaning up that mess.
“There are going to be fits and starts in getting the mess cleaned up but it is going to get cleaned up and we will emerge more prosperous, more unified and more protected from systemic risks.”
The two leaders also discussed the situation in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
As their husbands met in the Oval Office, Sarah Brown and Michelle Obama met upstairs in the White House’s private residence and talked for more than an hour. They are said to have talked largely about maternal health and reducing the rate of mothers’ mortality. They also talked over plans for a “spouse programme” at the G20 summit.
Mr Brown’s address to Congress is expected to compare the battle against the global recession to the fight against European fascism in the 1940s.
In indicating his agreement with Mr Brown on the need to update the world’s financial institutions and regulation, Mr Obama said: “We have got to update our institutions, our regulatory framework so that the power of globalisation is channelled for the benefit of ordinary men and women — so they have jobs and they can send their children to college and prosper and thrive, so the benefits of globalisation are not just for a small handful of people who are not accountable.”
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