New British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson will on Thursday (July 21) make his first official visit to the United States, meeting global counterparts as part of the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
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The appointment of Johnson as the UK’s foreign secretary has been met with a mixture of bemusement and indignation across Europe.
Steinmeier said Johnson had distinguished between “Europe” and “the EU”, and “tried to make clear the United Kingdom will still engage in conflicts like Syria even if it will leave the EU”.
As Kerry continued, Johnson interjected to laughter: “You can stop there”.
“Given that Mr. Johnson led a campaign that your government viewed pretty universally as detrimental to UK, EU, and even United States interests, what confidence do you have that as foreign secretary Mr. Johnson will represent the interests of anyone but himself?”
Mr Johnson said he had had a productive 45-minute meeting with European Union foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini on Sunday and was looking forward to presenting a positive case for Brexit.
Standing alongside John Kerry, the U.S. secretary of state, Johnson claimed his remarks had been misconstrued, that his past journalism had been taken out of context, and world leaders he had met since his appointment fully understood his past remarks. Mogherini had originally planned an informal dinner of foreign ministers for Sunday in order to have a post-Brexit de-brief with Philip Hammond, the former foreign secretary-turned chancellor, who had built up a strong working relationship with ministers since succeeding William Hague in the role two years ago. “I will always talk to Boris Johnson with the greatest sincerity, the greatest frankness, I think it’s like that we have to move on”, Ayrault said.
Brussels also warned the Government to treat European Union nationals with “dignity” after Brexit Secretary David Davis suggested new European Union migrants could be forced to leave the UK.
Following the talks in Number 10, Mr Kerry said the Prime Minister was committed to a “calm, thoughtful, reasonable” way to deal with Brexit.
“In no way are we going to be abandoning our leading role in European co-operation” UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.
“The tone is a marked change from campaigning mode when Johnson compared the European project to Adolf Hitler’s ambitions”, The Guardian notes.
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Mr Johnson was urged to use his meeting with Saudi officials to express concern at the country’s intervention in Yemen.
