Sunak stresses need for ‘close’ relationship with Biden ahead of US trip

This week’s visit, which includes watching a baseball game, comes after a period of significant strain for the ‘special relationship’

Rishi Sunak has stressed the need to forge a “close and candid” relationship with Joe Biden as he prepares to visit the White House after a difficult few years for US-UK relations.

It is the fourth meeting of the two men in as many months but comes after a period of significant strain for the ‘special relationship’.

The prime minister will attend a series of high profile events this week, joining business and political figures at a baseball game in Washington DC, ahead of holding talks with Mr Biden.

He will also address a gathering of American chief executives as he seeks to build closer economic ties with the US, despite the stalling of plans to broker a post-Brexit free trade deal.

The prime minister will be keen to get away from the ongoing legal row between the Cabinet Office and the Covid inquiry over Boris Johnson’s Whatsapps, which has dominated the UK political agenda.

“The US is our closest ally,” Rishi Sunak said ahead of the trip (PA Wire)

He will also be keen to flex his diplomatic muscles on the international stage.

On Wednesday he will watch the Washington Nationals play the Arizona Diamondbacks baseball for a “UK-US Friendship Day” organised with the British embassy. There is talk of Mr Sunak playing a ceremonial role at the start of the game.

US and UK military units will perform a flyover over the stadium and there will be performances from the Royal Marine Corps of Drums and the Washington Tattoo.

Mr Sunak, who studied at Stanford business school in California, met his wife Akshata there and still has a house in Santa Monica, is determined to show that he is best placed to secure ties with the White House.

His affinity with the US contrasts with his recent predecessors who did little to boost the special relationship.

Theresa May had a notoriously uneasy relationship with Donald Trump, who infamously praised Boris Johnson – then her main Tory party rival – the night before she welcomed the US President to Chequers.

Theresa May had an uneasy relationship with Donald Trump (Reuters)

Members of Mr Biden’s circle are reported to have hated Mr Johnson when he was prime minister, because of an article he wrote about Barack Obama.

Mr Johnson infamously suggested the then-president had moved a bust of Winston Churchill in the White House because of “the part-Kenyan president’s ancestral dislike of the British empire”. At the time, Churchill’s grandson Nicholas Soames called the piece “appalling”.

Ahead of this week’s visit, Mr Sunak said: “The US is our closest ally. We are one another’s partner of first resort when it comes to everything from keeping our people safe to growing our economies.

“That’s why it is so important for a UK prime minister to forge a close and candid relationship with the President of the United States – on every global problem, you will see us working side-by-side.”

He said he looked forward to seeing President Biden to “continue those efforts and to deliver for the British people.”

Mr Sunak’s official working visit to the White House will take place on Thursday. The two men have already met in San Diego, Belfast and the G7 summit in Hiroshima.

“No British prime minister has had this much sustained contact with the president of the US in recent years,” Downing Street said.

Mr Biden’s administration has billed it as an opportunity to discuss support for Ukraine as well as protecting the Good Friday Agreement.