Americas

Americas

Obama praises alliance as British PM visits

14 March 2012 17:35 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. President Barack Obama spoke highly of the U.S.-British alliance Wednesday as he welcomed British Prime Minister David Cameron to the White House with full military and ceremonial honors, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

On the south lawn against a sunny, blue sky, the president described the relationship as "the strongest that it has ever been."

"The storied relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom is steeped in tradition," he said. "And today, like so many presidents and prime ministers before us, we meet to reaffirm one of the greatest alliances the world has ever known."

"Through the grand sweep of history, through all its twists and turns, there is one constant: the rock-solid alliance between the United States and the United Kingdom," he said, calling the alliance "essential" and "indispensable" to the security and prosperity that both nations seek.

Obama, who is often portrayed in the British media as deeply uninterested in the U.S.-British "special relationship" and whose early presidency saw a faltering in the ties, has taken advantage of Cameron’s official visit to reverse the notion.

He took his guest aboard Air Force One on Tuesday to attend a college basketball game in Dayton, Ohio, making Cameron the first foreign leader to travel with him on his presidential jet.

And on Wednesday evening, the White House is scheduled to host a state dinner for the prime minister and his wife Samantha, though he is not a head of state.

The Daily Telegraph reported the warmth of the welcome surprised some British officials, as Obama was thought to favor closer ties with Asian nations rather than traditional allies in Europe.

For his part, Cameron said: "The partnership between our countries, between our peoples, is the most powerful partnership for progress that the world has ever seen."

However, the litmus test lies in Obama’s stand on the dispute between Britain and Argentina over the Falklands (Malvinas) Islands, an issue that once alienated London and Washington when Gordon Brown, Cameron’s predecessor, was in office.

The islands in the South Atlantic are controlled by Britain, but have been claimed by Argentina since 1833. The two countries fought a war over them in 1982, and as the 30th anniversary of the war nears, tensions have been running high.

"David Cameron must stand up to Barack Obama over the Falkland Islands," an article in The Telegraph claimed Wednesday.

Afghanistan, Iran and Syria, "the biggest issues in the world" as the prime minister called them, will dominate his talks with Obama. On those issues, at least, they have common ground.