And Mr. Johnson promised Britain would maintain a leading role in European foreign policy.
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When pushed on the Obama controversy specifically, the foreign secretary Tuesday declined to apologize. We have a crisis in Yemen that is intractable and a burgeoning crisis on Egypt and those are to my mind far more important than any obiter dicta you may have disinterred from 30 years of journalism.
Mr Johnson replied: “I’m afraid there is such a rich thesaurus now of things that I have said that have been. somehow misconstrued that it would really take me too long to engage in a full global itinerary of apology”.
Kerry stuck to the high-ground on Tuesday.
Today’s meeting came only weeks after Mr Johnson insulted US President Barack Obama with a pointed reference to his Kenyan background during the European Union referendum campaign.
He was also reminded he had compared presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton to a “sadistic nurse in a mental hospital” or Lady Macbeth.
During the run up to the referendum, Ayrault had accused Johnson of “lying a lot” to turn British public opinion against the EU.
Now, along with his new friend “John” Kerry, Johnson has far more important matters to attend to – the wars in Syria and Yemen, negotiating Britain’s European Union exit and world trade. “Boris has been an outstanding columnist for many years”, he said, “with a legion of devoted readers”.
Kerry, for his part, said diplomatically that he had been reliably informed Johnson was “a very smart and capable man”.
“Our ambassador to the E.U.in Brussels, who I just spent the evening with the other night, had the privilege of going to Oxford [University] with Boris Johnson”, he said. “Hodder and Stoughton confirm that they are postponing publication of Boris Johnson’s “Shakespeare: The Riddle of Genius”, the publishers said in a statement.
His appointment stunned many in Europe, with French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault saying he had lied to voters during the campaign.
According to Hague, the former mayor of London should in his new role also “strike a careful balance on the other great fault line – the Asia Pacific”, go to America quickly “to explain what will change and what won’t with Brexit”, and “use the great assets and connections of the United Kingdom to launch new initiatives to improve the condition of humanity”.
Mr Johnson will travel to Washington DC on Thursday for talks on combating Islamic State.
Johnson was clearly not surprised by the questioning on his past remarks from the British and United States media.
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Kerry took a step towards him, gripped his arm and said: “It’s called diplomacy, Boris”.
