Britain should downgrade its ties to the U.S. because of Trump’s policies, say peers
Britain must downgrade its “bedrock” reliance on the US and recognise that the Trump administration is seeking to undermine British efforts to tackle the most critical challenges facing the world, a committee of peers has said.
The Lords international relations committee said the Trump administration’s actions on issues including the Paris climate change deal, the Iran nuclear accord and steel tariffs had been “contrary to the interests of the UK”.
After taking evidence over the past year from some of the country’s most senior diplomats, national security experts and foreign policy specialists, the committee says the UK needs to develop alliances elsewhere around the globe, including within Europe, to maintain reformed multilateral institutions. If it does not it will risk a form of “global anarchy” gripping the world in fields such as trade, in turn “leading to worse things – as was the hideous story of the 1930s”.
The committee, which is chaired by the former Conservative cabinet minister Lord Howell and includes the former Foreign Office diplomat Lord Hannay, challenged a claim by the foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, that Trump was “seeking to reform, rather than disrupt and destroy the United Nations”. The committee said it took a more sceptical view and urged the government to “continue to resist US challenges to the UN”. [Continue reading…]