Everything is just fine. Okay, there’s the Huawei thing. And the disagreement over how to deal with Iran. And global warming, trade wars, NATO, an investigation into Prince Andrew, and the requested extradition of the wife of an American diplomat who killed a British teenager. Oh, and there was that thing where the British ambassador was unceremoniously dumped after being criticized by the American president. Still, all of these are merely “wrinkles” in what remains a very smooth and special relationship between the United States and Britain.
At least this was the message British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo projected in London today.
Onstage, Raab and Pompeo were at pains to play down the disagreements over Huawei—Britain this week gave the Chinese telecom giant the go-ahead to build some of its 5G network, despite intense American lobbying against such a decision—and everything else. “True friends don’t always agree on everything, but you work your way through all of those issues,” Raab said. “The sea of things we do agree on overwhelms the occasional drop of disagreement, and that’s the strength of the relationship.” For Raab, these occasional drops were only about the means to a common end. Pompeo agreed.
Let’s test these statements on their own merits. First, are the United States and Britain really being candid with each other about where they disagree? Second, do they really share the same analysis of the world and its challenges? And finally, is this really only about means and not about ends? In all three cases, the answer appears to be no.
First, however much Raab and Pompeo protested, the real story from their love-in was what was not said. On the greatest foreign-pol ..
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