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When Brown took over from Blair, many wondered how his buttoned-up style would play overseas with leaders accustomed to a decade of Blair’s smiles, casual dress and boyish demeanor. Blair’s agreeable air made him seem likable, yet left him open to condescension – as when Bush called out “Yo, Blair!” to him at last year’s Group of Eight summit.
By contrast, Bush appeared somewhat overshadowed at Monday’s news conference at Camp David, Maryland, in the view of British observers.
“PM gives a signal that he’s no poodle,” the conservative Daily Telegraph headlined a story about the meeting.
“Even when Bush was trying to act friendly, his shoulders were slumped,” body-language specialist Judi James told the newspaper.
Brown also stayed away from Bush’s penchant from remarks that many foreigners see as excessively personal. Brown did not presume to be on a first-name basis with the US leader, nor to have insights into his character.
The Independent newspaper sniffed, “George Bush, expert diviner of global statesmen … peered into the soul of Gordon Brown yesterday, and found it very good.”
The Guardian suggested that Brown’s distance was not just a matter of personal preference but of strategy aimed at achieving gravitas and staking out an independent position for his government, while continuing to pursue close relations with Washington, which Brown has described as Britain’s most important partner.
Those style decisions underline strong policy statements from Brown, including his vow that Britain would make decisions about its troops in Iraq based on its own commanders’ assessments.
An opinion poll by the Populus group published in The Times of London yesterday showed support for Brown’s Labour Party rising to 39 percent – its highest level in 18 months – while the main opposition Conservative Party has declined to 33 percent.
In New York to address the UN, Mr Brown said the world was facing campaigns by “al-Qaeda-inspired terrorists” bent on destroying life and wrecking countries’ infrastructures. In his speech to the General Assembly he pressed nations, businesses and individuals to back ambitious plans to revive a stalled global development plan.
(The Independent) – In terms of substance, Mr Brown deserves credit for getting the President to engage with his plan to jump-start the stalled world trade liberalisation talks. Only concrete progress in the Doha round will tell if Mr Bush’s commitment yesterday is anything more than warm words, but it was refreshing to see the President forced to address in his own backyard the rich world’s scandalous agricultural protectionism.
Mr President: "Prime Minister "understands the call"
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On the subject of Islamist terrorism, Mr Brown came out with an interesting soundbite. The Prime Minister argued that jihadist violence is “not a cause, but a crime”. This represents a subtle contradiction of the clumsy and counterproductive rhetoric of President Bush’s “war on terrorism”. Overall, though, Mr Brown was disappointing on the subject of Iraq. Although he avoided the simplistic “good and evil” narrative of Mr Blair and President Bush …
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In the meantime, Mr Brown achieved what he came for. He looked statesmanlike and eloquent (especially next to the inarticulate, and at times irritable, President Bush). At the same time, he managed to signal a subtle change of tone in transatlantic relations, although nothing that is going to cause diplomatic rupture.
Yet the true test of Mr Brown’s strategy will be the extent that he can use the relationship with this lame duck president over the next 18 months to enhance the greater international good. We hope for the best, but the Prime Minister would do well to remember that previous attempts to steer the Bush administration in the right direction have not ended happily.
Gordon Brown has secured an international deal to send to Darfur the biggest-ever United Nations peacekeeping force. He won American and French support for a Security Council resolution that will mobilise action to stop mass killings in the western province of Sudan.
Britain will put £100million toward the cost of sending 19,000 troops to the divided region.
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Panoramic view of refugees at a camp in Darfur
The speed with which the agreement was reached means peace talks between the Sudanese government and rebels in Darfur can start this weekend in Tanzania. The international community has been accused of standing by while militias backed by the Sudanese government in Khartoum launch murderous attacks on the civilian population of Darfur.
Mr Brown told the UN: “The situation in Darfur is the greatest humanitarian disaster the world faces today.”
He said more than 200,000 people had been killed, a further two million displaced and four million left reliant on international food aid. The largely Christian population of Darfur, which is almost the size of France, has been concentrated into camps to escape the Muslim-dominated janjaweed militias.
The first detachments of troops, to be drawn mostly from African countries including Rwanda, could be deployed by October. The operation is expected to cost £1billion in its first year.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
