The US president, Joe Biden, and Britain\u2019s new prime minister, Rishi Sunak, agreed during talks on Tuesday to work together to support Ukraine and stand up to China, the White House said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They spoke for the first time a few hours after Sunak became Britain\u2019s third prime minister this year, inheriting an economic crisis after the resignation of Liz Truss whose tenure lasted 49 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Only in recent days has Biden appeared to publicly criticise Truss\u2019s doomed economic strategy, in a rare intervention by the US president. Relations between the two countries have also been somewhat strained in recent years amid ongoing tensions over post-Brexit arrangements in Northern Ireland. The White House holds concerns over the impact on peace in the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Biden and Sunak reaffirmed the \u201cspecial relationship\u201d between the US and Britain, and said they would work together to advance global security and prosperity, the White House said in a summary of the conversation.Rishi Sunak vows to fix \u2018mistakes\u2019 made by Liz Trussyy in first speech as PMRead more<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe leaders agreed on the importance of working together to support Ukraine and hold Russia accountable for its aggression,\u201d the statement said of the war triggered by the Russian invasion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sunak has promised the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, that Britain\u2019s support for Ukraine will be steadfast and \u201cas strong as ever under his premiership\u201d, a Downing Street spokesperson has said. \u201cThe prime minister said \u2026 President Zelenskiy could count on his government to stand in continued solidarity. Both leaders agreed on the need to continue to place pressure on Putin\u2019s barbaric regime through continued economic sanctions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For his part, Zelenskiy said he believed \u201cBritish leadership in defending democracy and freedom\u201d would only get stronger. \u201cUkraine and Britain have reached new heights in relations lately but nevertheless we still have potential to strengthen our cooperation,\u201d he said in an evening video address, adding that he had invited Sunak to visit Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The White House said Biden and Sunak also agreed to \u201caddress the challenges posed by China\u201d, which Washington has identified as its top geopolitical and economic rival on the world stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Downing Street had earlier released its own summary of the call, in which it referred to efforts to \u201ccounter China\u2019s malign influence\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The statement read: \u201cPresident Biden congratulated the prime minister on his appointment and the leaders looked forward to working closely together. President Biden said that the UK remains America\u2019s closest ally, and the prime minister agreed on the huge strength of the relationship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe leaders discussed the extent of UK-US cooperation, both bilaterally and in regions such as the Indo-Pacific where the\u00a0Aukus pact\u00a0forms part of our efforts to enhance stability and counter China\u2019s malign influence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey reflected on the leading role our countries are playing in supporting the people of Ukraine and ensuring Putin fails in this war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe prime minister and President Biden also agreed on the need to ensure the people of Northern Ireland have security and prosperity through preserving the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The two leaders are expected to meet in person at the G20 Summit in Indonesia next month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Britain has been a key European ally of the US in arming and supporting the Ukrainian military as it tries to repel the Russian invasion, which began in February.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Earlier on Tuesday, Biden had congratulated Sunak in a tweet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Monday, Biden described the naming of Britain\u2019s first non-white prime minister as \u201cpretty astounding, a groundbreaking milestone\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The US president, Joe Biden, and Britain\u2019s new prime minister, Rishi Sunak, agreed during talks on Tuesday to work together to support Ukraine and stand up to China, the White House said. They spoke for the first time a few hours after Sunak became Britain\u2019s third prime minister this year, inheriting an economic crisis after […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":26840,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[55,12],"tags":[11746,13223,9831,8731,5178,75,5307,5268,8590,8440,11606,6718,685,9505,9127,4028,6046,8493,2264,8316,8124,5252,6449,2471,9974,5840,5572,2695,5396,96,3805,3174,71,5266,3457,5217,5713,5655,10041,11325,8840,8302,2711,12605,5180,5555,6348,11331,8033,6886,5251,2354,6571,2982,3954,10415,36,6874],"class_list":["post-26839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-announcement","category-world-news","tag-appointment","tag-aukus","tag-barbaric","tag-belfast","tag-biden","tag-brexit","tag-britain","tag-british","tag-conversation","tag-crisis","tag-democracy","tag-downing","tag-downing-street","tag-european","tag-february","tag-freedom","tag-g20","tag-g20-summit","tag-government","tag-indo-pacific","tag-indonesia","tag-invasion","tag-ireland","tag-joe-biden","tag-leadership","tag-liz-truss","tag-military","tag-northern-ireland","tag-peace","tag-china","tag-president","tag-prime-minister","tag-putin","tag-rishi-sunak","tag-russia","tag-russian","tag-sanctions","tag-security","tag-speech","tag-street","tag-strong","tag-sunak","tag-taiwan","tag-uk","tag-ukraine","tag-ukrainian","tag-us","tag-us-president","tag-video","tag-volodymyr-zelenskiy","tag-war","tag-washington","tag-white","tag-white-house","tag-will","tag-work","tag-world","tag-zelenskiy"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26839\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}