Can Joe Biden Break the Impasse in Northern Ireland?
During the G-7 summit, the U.S. president neutralized a major U.K. argument against compromise with the EU. The politics, though, favor escalation.
Not much chance of lowering the temperature.
Photographer: Leon Neal/WPA Pool via Getty Images
On the level of optics, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson can count his first meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden a success. There were impressive photo ops, an exchange of gifts and a new Atlantic Charter to update the one Churchill and Roosevelt signed 80 years ago.
But if Biden’s goal at the Group of Seven meeting in England was to restore meaningful multilateralism among democratic nations and revive the rules-based order Donald Trump sought to trash, then he couldn’t have been happy with his host’s behavior. The leaders weren’t there to talk about Brexit, yet the U.K.’s divorce from the European Union dominated the summit anyhow, overshadowing what turned out to be milquetoast agreements on key issues.