Washington – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Sunday that President Biden’s first steps on issues such as foreign policy and climate change were “incredibly encouraging” for US-UK relations.
“There have been some important developments in the way the UK and US thinking have come together in the last few weeks, especially on issues such as climate change, NATO, Iran, but especially the ways in which the US and the UK will work together to meet the environmental challenge facing our planet, “Johnson said in an interview with” Face the Nation. “” And there, I think, are some of the things we’re hearing now from the new U.S. administration and from the new White House are incredibly encouraging. And we want to work with the president on that. “
Johnson was among the first world leaders to congratulate Mr Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris after being declared the winners of the November presidential election. The president also spoke with Johnson three days after his inauguration, and Mr. Biden conveyed his “intention to strengthen the special relationship between our countries and revitalize transatlantic ties,” according to a summary of the White House appeal. .
Johnson told Face the Nation that he was “delighted” to have a good relationship with the White House and said he had “fantastic conversations” with Mr. Biden. The British prime minister also said he was “delighted” that Mr Biden had adopted the slogan “Build back better”, especially when it comes to tackling 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 need to learn how to share information, how to share drugs properly, how to make sure we don’t accumulate things like personal protective equipment, as you saw earlier in we need to make sure we distribute vaccines. “
Johnson said he hopes the United States and Britain can work together to learn from the pandemic, and said the Biden administration is raising concerns about an investigation. assembled by the World Health Organization in 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 reach” the survey’s early findings and stressed that it is “imperative” that the report be independent. ” with the findings of experts without intervention or change the Chinese government. “
“When you have a zoonotic plague like the coronavirus, we need to know exactly how it happened. Indeed, if it is zoonotic, if it really came from human contact with the animal kingdom, that is true. . Was it in a wet market? Did it come from bats? Were the bats associated with the pangolins? All of these questions are now speculative, “Johnson said.” We need to see the data. We need to see all the evidence. So I fully support what President Biden said about that. “
Both the US and the UK are facing new strains of coronavirus, one of which has been identified for the first time in the UK, another in South Africa and the third in Brazil. The British version, B.1.1.7., Is considered more transmissible by public health officials, and the emergence of new strains has raised questions about the effectiveness of vaccines developed to protect against COVID-19.
Johnson, however, said he had “great confidence” in the vaccinations the UK uses and had “no reason to believe they were ineffective” against the new options.
“This is a very important consideration for us,” he said. One of the features of the Oxford AstraZeneca that has recently been confirmed by scientists is that it also reduces transmission between humans. There is a 67% reduction in transmission as a result of the use of these vaccinations.