Sunak and Biden’s White House love-in

Rishi Sunak and Joe Biden’s White House press conference started late, presumably to make a point that the two had just found so much to talk about in their bilateral. Like a date that had gone really well.

When the pair eventually appeared before journalists, they spent most of their opening statements banging on about how much they had in common and how they agreed on everything. Biden described the ‘depth and breadth of our relationship’, ‘our common values’ and said ‘there’s no issue of importance – none – that our nations are not leading together on’. Sunak claimed that ‘not for decades has the relationship between our two nations been so important’, and that the only thing that had changed was ‘the challenges that we face’. 

Despite all this love, actually there was no free trade agreement. Instead the pair announced an ‘Atlantic Declaration’, with the two countries promising to work more closely on economic, technological, commercial and trade relations.