CHARM OFFENSIVE
Analysts said Starmer is hoping the display of royal flattery for the US president – Trump has long expressed a fascination with the royal family – will help keep UK-US ties on a friendly footing.
Britain became the first country to strike a reciprocal tariff agreement with the US in May, securing exemptions from new duties on exports to America.
However, the details on how – or if – those concessions will be implemented for certain products like steel and aluminium have not yet materialised.
“There’re still a lot of question marks around the implementation of that deal,” said Jonathan Portes, an economics and public policy professor at King’s College London.
“So, for Starmer, the first priority will be sorting out how that deal is actually going to be brought into effect and how the UK industry is going to be protected, at least to some extent, from the worst impacts of Trump’s tariff policies.”
The British prime minister will also want to try to move Washington’s position closer to London’s on other international issues, including being tougher on Russia and providing more assistance to Gaza, said experts.
WHAT US WANTS FROM UK
Meanwhile, the US wants Britain to be an ally against China, said international politics professor Inderjeet Parmar.
“The US is probably going to ask Britain to become more aligned with the US in that regard to contain and isolate China more,” said the professor from City St George’s at the University of London.
“The problem is that Britain is also trying to get closer (ties) with the European Union, which has very large trading relations with China. Britain, post-Brexit, needs China more than the US does. And that’s going to cause a great deal of tension.”
