On Wednesday, Prime Minister Theresa May appointed former mayor of London Boris Johnson the country’s new foreign secretary – but not everyone seems to be pleased about the news.
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May had a phone call late yesterday with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who invited her to visit, followed by calls with the French and Irish leaders, a Downing Street spokeswoman said.
The pair also agreed that the special relationship between the United States and Britain was as essential as ever and that they would work closely together as North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies on a range of challenges ahead.
Before the poetry contest, when the Leave and Remain campaigns were running at full speed in Britain and making global headlines, the Turkish media were mostly excited about Johnson’s Ottoman origins.
Cameron’s successor, Theresa May, named the former mayor of London and one-time EU-bashing Brussels journalist as her foreign secretary late on Wednesday, and put another veteran Eurosceptic, David Davis, in charge of European Union exit negotiations. But completely different political tasks now stand at the forefront: “this is about taking foreign policy responsibility beyond Brexit”.
Before becoming Britain’s top diplomat, Johnson had an awkward relationship with America’s top diplomat and now presumptive Democratic nominee.
Steinmeier said that “Britain remains an important partner” with which Germany must work at the U.N., NATO, in the Group of Seven and in efforts to end Syria’s civil war.
“We can’t afford a long period of uncertainty”, he said.
And those are Britain’s allies talking. And past year he said: “The only reason I wouldn’t visit some parts of NY is the real risk of meeting Donald Trump”.
Also in December, U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump implied that parts of London were risky due to radicalization.
New British Prime Minister Theresa May is clearing rivals from government as she assembles her new Cabinet team.
Explaining that Johnson’s anti-Turkish discourse during the Brexit campaign became irrelevant after the referendum, Bayraklı said that Johnson will not maintain a similar discourse during his new post as foreign secretary. “Of course now, when the United Kingdom will probably want to have a deep, deepened relationship with Turkey, this will be the moment in which they have the least influence in the European Union on Turkey’s prospects of becoming a member of the EU, if that is what it still wants”, Whitman added.
May campaigned for the leadership as a safe pair of hands, after spending six years as home secretary, one of the toughest jobs in British politics.
She has also fired Education Secretary Nicky Morgan, who backed Gove’s short-lived leadership campaign. Professor Richard Whitman from Chatham House in London shared similar thoughts, saying that the preoccupation of British foreign policy is to develop a new relationship with the European Union, but simultaneously to try and develop a new or deepen some existing relationships.
May is expected to name a raft of new ministers on Thursday.
Still, Hardt suggests: “Britain remaining in the European Union should also be an option for the new government – it would be better for Great Britain and the rest of the European Union”.
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Hammond on Thursday said he would not submit an emergency budget in response to the Brexit decision, and would instead submit the budget in the fall, as is customary. “We do not need to teach babies Mandarin”.
