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Obama: Britain will be “full partner”

LONDON: U.S. Senator Barack Obama, the favourite to win the Democratic nomination for the race to the White House, on Tuesday promised to put America’s relations with Britain on a more equal footing if he won the election than has been the case under the Bush administration.

Addressing American expatriates in Britain through a phone-link at a fundraising event in London, Mr. Obama called for “recalibrating” the British-U.S. “special relationship,” which under the Bush presidency has seen Britain reduced to playing the second fiddle to Washington.

The former Prime Minister, Tony Blair’s enthusiastic backing for the Mr. Bush’s foreign policy agenda, especially his unconditional support to Iraq invasion, alienated Britain’s European allies and it was accused of acting like “Bush’s poodle.” Although the tone has changed slightly under Prime Minister Gordon Brown, British foreign policy on major issues, notably Iran, remains largely in line with the U.S. approach.

Mr. Obama said if he won the election, his administration would treat Britain as a “full partner.”

“We have a chance to recalibrate the relationship and for the U.K. to work with America as a full partner,” he said. His remarks came barely days after British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, during a visit to Washington, reportedly voiced concern over the view among some of Mr. Obama’s foreign policy advisers that the West should talk to Iran without preconditions.

Commenting on Mr. Obama’s comments on British-U.S. relations, one of his advisers told The Guardian that they reflected his approach to foreign policy. “It’s no longer going to be that we are in the lead and everyone follows us. Full partners not only listen to each other, they also occasionally follow each other,” he said.

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