Johnson and Biden set to agree new Atlantic Charter that includes push to reopen UK-US travel
Boris Johnson and Joe Biden will meet in Cornwall tomorrow ahead of the G7 summit and sign a new “Atlantic Charter” that is modelled on the 1941 UK-US agreement.
The pair will also map out a number of other policy objectives, including a commitment to reopen UK-US travel as soon as possible through a new travel taskforce and to start talks on a deal to reduce US barriers to British tech firms.
The new Atlantic Charter is based off the 1941 agreement between Winston Churchill and Franklin D Roosevelt, which pledged for the two countries to promote democracy and free trade post-war.
Number 10 said the new agreement will see both sides pledge to “apply our combined strength to the enormous challenges facing the planet today”, such as climate change, global defence and the post-Covid economic recovery.
The charter will outline eight areas where both sides will pledge to work together, which will be “based around our enduring values, including defending democracy, reaffirming the importance of collective security, and building a fair and sustainable global trading system”.
The new charter will be seen as a sign of Biden’s push to reposition the US as more internationalist, after four years of Donald Trump’s “America first” foreign policy objectives.
Biden’s trip to the UK is his first overseas visit since being inaugurated in January.
“While Churchill and Roosevelt faced the question of how to help the world recover following a devastating war, today we have to reckon with a very different but no less intimidating challenge – how to build back better from the coronavirus pandemic,” Johnson said.
“And as we do so, cooperation between the UK and US, the closest of partners and the greatest of allies, will be crucial for the future of the world’s stability and prosperity.
“The agreements President Biden and I will make today, rooted as they are in our shared values and outlook, will form the foundation of a sustainable global recovery.”
Johnson and Biden are also due to discuss the long-running Boeing and Airbus trade dispute, which has seen both sides slap World Trade Organisation (WTO) tariffs on the other.
The tariffs are currently suspended from both sides as they try to work out a resolution to the trade conflict and as negotiations on a UK-US trade deal continue.
The pair will also pledge to sign a “landmark bilateral technology agreement” by the end of next year.
“The agreement will start a new era of strategic cooperation by reducing the barriers British tech firms face when trying to work with their US counterparts,” Number 10 said.
The UK’s integrated review of foreign and defence policy clearly set out that the US would remain as the country’s most important security ally in the future.
Sophia Gaston, director at the British Foreign Policy Group, said that this was a hark back to the post-war years.
“It also reflects the fact that both nations have come to realise they share a particular responsibility, as leading architects of much of the existing world order now under threat, to shepherd global governance into the realities and demands of the 21st Century,” she said.
“This is a bold statement which captures two nations at an inflection point in terms of their international roles, and striving to focus minds and energies after a tumultuous five years.”
Johnson and Biden will meet at an undisclosed location in Cornwall at around 3.30pm tomorrow.
They will also go on to have a series of joint meetings with the other G7 leaders, EU leaders and guest leaders from countries like Australia and India at the luxury Carbis Bay resort.
The Prime Minister will have one-on-one meetings with all other G7 leaders in attendance as well as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.