UK and USA on brink of diplomatic conflicts
The Brexit tensions between two allied superpowers have brought the long withstanding ‘special friendship’ on a knife-edge. As partners of shared history, culture, values and traditions, the United States of America and the United Kingdom collectively have been stakeholders in shaping world geopolitics in the early and mid 20thth Century. Vouching to take up the gauntlet in two gory World Wars with an aim to liberate this planet with equal space and freedom for all, the journey of a strong alliance between the two holds through a bastion of independence. However, the tiff between the two countries cannot be undervalued with nationalistic zealous aims to gain corridors of power.
The Suez emergency of 1956 and the Vietnam war of 1975 bear witness to alliances hitting rock bottom from time to time. American history enunciates Britain’s overtly nefarious plan of burning down the Parliament in 1814, whereas Britain remembers America to be the breeding place of deported convicts. The 1956 Suez War strapped off British status as a global power. It was only after leaving the EU, the UK was able to bring back the lost prominence and dignity with a new integrity. As a constitutional and principal republic, the UK could exert its foreign policy at its best. Although critics feel Brexit prodigalized Britain’s thriving reputation in the international community, the UK on the other hand knuckled down in improving its diplomatic ties with the US and Europe over the six decades.
Rolling out robust savoir-faire and pragmatism in its bilateral relations with the US, the tension between London and Washington seems to escalate. With the assassination of a US intelligence officer in the UK, being in the news sometime back, the US has accused the British government of failing to administer the security of American diplomats in the heartland. With a recent disagreement between the two countries over imposing taxes on the American organizations as per the European standards. Tossing around the diplomatic ties, the UK believes it to be a justified measure for the compensation received in return from the British government. Speculating about the tyrannical move, Washington backlashed at Boris Johnson’s government, threatening to levy similar taxation on the British automobile sector in America; which would rampage not only the trade deal with the UK government but it would be difficult for Britain to find its ground after its exit from the EU.
Post-Brexit, Biden has encouraged both parties to adhere to the Northern Ireland Protocol in safeguarding the Good Friday Agreement. The trade conflicts between Northern Ireland and the UK have provoked Boris Johnson’s government to resort to Article 16 of the EU cannot put forward concrete solutions in resolving the issue. While dialogues and critical analysis are on the way, Washington has repeatedly expressed its concern on the Northern Ireland Protocol. Northern Ireland is the last remaining of the EU’s single market. Having passed through UK coastal and air space, it is bound to pay a hefty amount as an excise for the bloc’s trade practices. Earlier the EU had proposed to efface the shipping cost for certain items, which the UK government finds a breach in international trade practices. Westminster has strongly advocated in applying Article 16 which ‘allows either side to suspend parts of the agreement if undue harm is caused to trade.’
Although the outcome of the resolutions is still pending, the UK’s diplomatic ties between its two comfortable arenas are at stake. Great Britain has been overtly ardent and goal-oriented in placing itself up on a pedestal. “Global Britain” has been the voice of the British government over the last 5 years in attaining itself a global spot amidst the superpowers.
