NPR’s Asma Khalid speaks to Karen Pierce, the UK’s ambassador to the US, in regards to the partnership between the 2 nations and the struggle in Ukraine.
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
President Biden says his White Home assembly with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was about upgrading their transatlantic relationship.
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PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: Our financial partnership is a gigantic energy and supply of energy that anchors the whole lot that we do collectively.
MARTÍNEZ: Each leaders introduced a brand new plan to strengthen cooperation, with the whole lot from commerce offers to worldwide guidelines for AI. And so they additionally affirmed unwavering help for Ukraine. The British ambassador to the U.S., Karen Pierce, was on the White Home with them yesterday.
Ambassador, the brand new financial partnership that is been introduced, the Atlantic Declaration, does that give the U.Okay. the whole lot it hoped to get?
KAREN PIERCE: Completely. We have negotiated very carefully with our buddies within the White Home and all through the U.S. interagency course of. Because the prime minister and the president mentioned, basically, that is about extending the connection to satisfy the brand new challenges of the twenty first century, which incorporates issues like financial coercion and bringing huge questions of financial safety. So when you like, we had the protection and safety relationship nicely cemented after the Second World Warfare. Now we’re within the twenty first century. We have got new challenges. That is about extending the connection to satisfy these new financial challenges.
MARTÍNEZ: Ambassador, how tied are the issues within the Atlantic Declaration to the Biden administration remaining within the White Home?
PIERCE: Oh, not – I imply, to not converse to bind a future administration. That is not a query for me as a diplomat. However I believe any American authorities would need to do issues to strengthen resilience, to work with transatlantic companions just like the U.Okay. to strengthen peace and stability in a free and open Indo-Pacific, to cooperate with companions towards financial coercion and to make provide chains resilient – in addition to taking a look at issues like AI, quantum, all these new challenges. So I am fairly assured these are themes which might be going to endure in all probability for a lot of a long time. And the president was very clear that what occurs within the subsequent few years goes to form the trajectory of the primary half of the twenty first century. We might very a lot agree with that.
MARTÍNEZ: Nonetheless, no post-Brexit commerce deal between the U.S. and the U.Okay. How far out of attain is that?
PIERCE: Properly, we weren’t asking for a commerce deal. The reason is that these new challenges, this new financial partnership is one thing that Secretary Yellen has touched on, one thing NSA Jake Sullivan has touched on when it comes to the brand new challenges, as I say, of the twenty first century. And we predict a broader financial partnership is correct right now to assist us put in place the issues we want, the instruments we want, the agreements we want, to satisfy these new challenges. And so we weren’t urgent for a commerce deal. And the Biden administration fully perceive that. And when you take a look at the textual content of the declaration, there are numerous agreements on important minerals, which is an important a part of this new set of challenges. There may be work going ahead on provide chains and an entire vary of AI cooperation.
MARTÍNEZ: That is the U.Okay.’s ambassador to the US, Karen Pierce. Ambassador, thanks very a lot.
PIERCE: Thanks.
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