What an extraordinary few days it has been for UK-US relations, with three developments each pointing in a different direction.Imagine being a fly on the phone line as the prime minister and President Trump caught up last night, speaking for the first time since this blitz of recent overseas activity from the White House.Firstly, there has been the outright public scepticism from the UK and European allies to America’s designs on Greenland.Secondly, the circumspect position of the British government on Washington’s actions in Venezuela – in which the prime minister welcomed the ends, the removal of President Maduro, but didn’t want to be publicly drawn on the legality or otherwise of the means.And then, thirdly, the pride in assisting America in the seizing of a ship in the North Atlantic, itself a reminder of how close to home this brings the headlines of recent days.As one MP put it in the Commons, one of the frontlines against Russia is in our own backyard, off the north coast of Scotland.The argument made in government is assisting America in seizing the Marinera was a no brainer, because this ship had connections not just to Venezuela but also to both Iran and Russia – adversaries of the US and the UK.On Wednesday morning, after around a week of planning, the UK supported an American operation to seize the Russian flagged ship.There were three strands to Britain’s support: allowing airbases in the UK to be used prior to and aft …
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[mwai_chat context=”Let’s have a discussion about this article:nnWhat an extraordinary few days it has been for UK-US relations, with three developments each pointing in a different direction.Imagine being a fly on the phone line as the prime minister and President Trump caught up last night, speaking for the first time since this blitz of recent overseas activity from the White House.Firstly, there has been the outright public scepticism from the UK and European allies to America’s designs on Greenland.Secondly, the circumspect position of the British government on Washington’s actions in Venezuela – in which the prime minister welcomed the ends, the removal of President Maduro, but didn’t want to be publicly drawn on the legality or otherwise of the means.And then, thirdly, the pride in assisting America in the seizing of a ship in the North Atlantic, itself a reminder of how close to home this brings the headlines of recent days.As one MP put it in the Commons, one of the frontlines against Russia is in our own backyard, off the north coast of Scotland.The argument made in government is assisting America in seizing the Marinera was a no brainer, because this ship had connections not just to Venezuela but also to both Iran and Russia – adversaries of the US and the UK.On Wednesday morning, after around a week of planning, the UK supported an American operation to seize the Russian flagged ship.There were three strands to Britain’s support: allowing airbases in the UK to be used prior to and aft …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]
