Obama aide: Biden doesn’t give a damn about world...
A FORMER White House adviser to Barack Obama has said Joe Biden’s failure to appoint an ambassador to Britain shows he does not “give a damn about the rest of the world”.
Former US diplomat Brett Bruen, who served as Mr Obama’s director of global engagement when Mr Biden was vice-president, has added his voice to the concerns over the apparent snub to Britain.
President Biden has not appointed anyone to the key role of ambassador. It comes along with his lack of consultation with world leaders over the withdrawal from Afghanistan, even refusing to take a call from Boris Johnson during the crisis.
A businessman who deals with both governments said: “There probably has never been a special relationship between the UK and US like people often claim but it is definitely at a low point now, and it is proving to be a problem.”
There have been concerns that Mr Biden is anti-british, with a history in the Irish American Democrats.
But the failure to have diplomatic relations on a full footing has implications for global security, with the two countries being lead members of Nato, and for a US/UK trade deal.
Mr Bruen said: “There’s an emerging foreign policy doctrine from Biden which is, ‘I mostly don’t give a damn about the rest of the world’.
“It is certainly surprising to see someone who spent his whole career doing foreign policy now continuing with a political rationale pioneered by Trump and putting foreign policy on the back burner.
“When it comes to Britain, it’s fair to say Biden has taken for granted the value of the special relationship. He has not, as I’d have expected him to, forged a deeper dialogue and strategy between a post-brexit UK and a post-trump US – in a lot of ways we need each other more than ever but seem to be more estranged.
“But it’s not just the UK – the whole world is feeling that the White House and the US are not dedicating much time to them and their concerns, and are letting a lot of global challenges go unaddressed and under-addressed,” he said.
Conservative MPS have also expressed alarm. Romford MP Andrew Rosindell, a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, said: “Biden is a disgrace. He has led the West to calamity and has taken an axe to British-american relations. We need Trump back.”
And former Defence Secretary Liam Fox said: “Given the seriousness of the current situation in global affairs, it is extremely important that the US appoint an ambassador to the UK as soon as possible.”