Chinese School - Bush, Brown seek to establish rapport

WORLD / Europe

Bush, Brown seek to establish rapport

(AP)
Updated: 2007-07-30 08:48

CAMP DAVID, Md. - US President Bush, starting a new relationship late in
his presidency, welcomed British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Sunday
with casual diplomacy.

US President Bush welcomes British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to the
presidential retreat at Camp David, Md., Sunday, July 29, 2007. [AP]

In the tranquility of the Catoctin Mountains, Bush and Brown began their
brief meeting - Sunday night and Monday - at Camp David, with an emphasis
on private time between the two. Their substantive agenda is familiar:
terror threats, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, crisis in Darfur, stalled
trade.

Yet the overarching theme is rapport - and establishing some.

Bush is aiming for at least a solid relationship with Brown, shaped
around their nations' mutual interests. That much is expected, but it is
far from the kinship Bush had with Brown's predecessor, Tony Blair, who
lost favor at home because of his close ties to Bush.

Brown arrived by helicopter at Camp David after booming thunderstorms
gave way to sunshine. He emerged to find a military honor guard and Bush
waiting for him.

"It's a great pleasure to be here at Camp David because there's so much
history associated with it," Brown told Bush as the leaders exchanged
small talk.

Bush drove the two of them away in a golf cart after doing a playful
360-degree maneuver in front of the gathered media. The two were off for
a private dinner.

En route to the United States, the new British leader said the world is
indebted to the United States for taking the lead in the fight against
terrorism. Brown said he would use his visit to strengthen what Britain
considers its "most important bilateral relationship."

London and Washington are focused on "the biggest single and immediate
challenge the world has to defeat: global terrorism," Brown told
reporters traveling with him.

"In this century it has fallen to America to take center stage," Brown
said. "America has shown by the resilience and bravery of its people from
Sept. 11 that while buildings can be destroyed, values are indestructible.

"And we should acknowledge the debt the world owes to the United States
for its leadership in this fight against international terrorism," he
said.

Brown denied speculation that Britain's relationship with the U.S. was
cooling.

His predecessor, Blair, was often accused at home of being too compliant
with the policies of President Bush, especially regarding the Iraq war.
Some analysts have urged Brown to be more like Prime Ministers Margaret
Thatcher and Winston Churchill, who had close ties with the U.S. but
remained frank about their own goals and policies.

Brown makes his first major overseas trip buoyed by a surprising degree
of public support after a first month in office in which he impressed
with his sober handling of the terror plots in London and Glasgow.

Brown was joined on the flight by Foreign Secretary David Miliband, the
youthful legislator he promoted last month to take charge of
international policy. Miliband was meeting U.S. Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice for the first time in his new role, aiming, like Bush,
to strike up an instant rapport with his counterpart.

Many observers expected Brown to flop because of a personality often
derided as dour and brooding - yet these very traits have helped him
appear serious and statesmanlike.

Britons actually seem pleased with the contrast to the kinetic Blair. But
questions abound over whether the intellectual Brown will kindle Blair's
chemistry with Bush.

Brown arrives with some thorny issues to manage, not least the fate of
Britain's remaining soldiers in Iraq.

In Washington, officials expressed optimism about warm ties between Bush
and Brown, but there has already been friction.

Junior foreign affairs minister Mark Malloch-Brown raised eyebrows in
Washington recently when he said Bush and Brown would not be "joined at
the hip" - a jab at Blair's close relationship with the U.S. president.

In London, The Sunday Times reported that Simon McDonald, Brown's chief
foreign policy adviser, recently traveled to Washington to meet with U.S.
officials ahead of the prime minister's visit and discussed the
possibility of an early British military withdrawal from Iraq.

Brown's spokesman Michael Ellam told reporters on Sunday that McDonald
had made it "very clear" to U.S. officials there had been no change to
British government policy over Iraq. Military chiefs in London have said
Britain is likely to hand over control of the southern Iraqi city of
Basra to local forces by the end of the year.

Around 500 of Britain's 5,500 troops in Iraq are due to hand over the
Basra Palace city center base within weeks, defense officials have said.
Brown has not outlined plans for the remaining 5,000 personnel, stationed
at an airport on the fringes of the city.

Ellam said there was no plan to withdraw British troops before the Iraqi
army is deemed capable of maintaining security.

Other difficult issues include the American push to build a missile
defense system in Eastern Europe, the Iran nuclear showdown, Darfur and
the status of the breakaway Serbian province of Kosovo.

Aides said the British leader aimed to secure Bush's help in restarting
the stalled Doha rounds of World Trade Organization talks, which seek to
help poorer countries develop their economies through new trade. He also
wanted to discuss a stiffer international response to the violence in
Sudan's Darfur region.

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