Washington – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Sunday that President Biden’s first steps on issues such as foreign policy and climate change are “incredibly encouraging” for relations between the United States and the United Kingdom.
“There have been some important developments in the way that UK and US thinking has come together in recent weeks, and particularly on issues such as climate change, NATO, Iran, but, above all, the ways in which the O UK will work together to address the environmental challenge facing our planet, “Johnson said in an interview with” Face the Nation “. “So, I think some of the things that we are hearing now from the new American administration and the new White House are incredibly encouraging. And we want to work with the president on that.”
Johnson was one of the first world leaders to congratulate Mr. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris after being declared winners in the November presidential election. The president also spoke with Johnson three days after his inauguration, with Biden conveying “his intention to strengthen the special relationship between our countries and to revitalize transatlantic ties”, according to a summary of the White House appeal.
Johnson told Face the Nation that he is “delighted” to have a good relationship with the White House and said he had “fantastic conversations” with Biden. The UK Prime Minister also said he was “thrilled” that Biden adopted the “Build Back Better” slogan, especially when it comes to addressing the coronavirus pandemic, although Johnson joked that he used it first.
“It’s the right slogan,” he said. “We have to learn from this pandemic. We have to learn about how to share information, how to share drugs properly, how to make sure not to accumulate things like personal protective equipment, as you saw earlier in the pandemic. We have to make sure that we are distributing vaccines. “
Johnson said he hopes the United States and the United Kingdom can work together to learn from the pandemic and said he supports the Biden government by raising concerns about an investigation. assembled by the World Health Organization at the origins of COVID-19. National security adviser Jake Sullivan said in a statement on Saturday that the White House has “questions about the process used to arrive” at the investigation’s first findings and emphasized that it is “imperative” that the report be independent “, with the conclusions of experts free from intervention or alteration by the Chinese government. “
“When you have a zoonotic plague like the coronavirus, we need to know exactly how it happened. In fact, if it is zoonotic, if it really originated from human contact with the animal kingdom, it is said. But we need to know exactly what happened. Was it in a wet market? Did it come from bats? Were bats associated with pangolins? All of these issues are now a matter of speculation, “Johnson said. “We need to see the data. We need to see all the evidence. So I fully support what President Biden said about it.”
Both the United States and the United Kingdom are struggling with new strains of the coronavirus, one of which was first identified in the United Kingdom, another in South Africa and a third in Brazil. The UK variant, B.1.1.7., Is considered by public health authorities to be more communicable, and the emergence of new strains has raised questions about the effectiveness of vaccines developed to protect against COVID-19 against them.
Johnson, however, said he has “great confidence” in the vaccines the UK is using and that they “have no reason to think they are ineffective” against the new variants.
“It is a very important consideration for us,” he said. “One of the characteristics of Oxford AstraZeneca that has recently been confirmed by scientists is that it reduces transmission between people as well. There is a 67% reduction in transmission as a result of using these vaccines.”