On this go to, Mr. Sunak was below stress to guarantee doubters in america and at dwelling that, after Brexit, Britain stays as dependable an ally as ever. He got here to Washington with presents, together with a customized Barbour jacket, a staple of British outerwear, for Mr. Biden, and each leaders peppered their conferences with historic information about prime minister-presidential relationships previous.
“Prime Minister Churchill and Roosevelt met right here slightly over 70 years in the past, and so they asserted that the power of the partnership between Nice Britain and america was the power of the free world,” Mr. Biden mentioned. “I nonetheless suppose there’s fact to that assertion.”
There was the occasional private flourish — largely from Mr. Sunak — together with when the prime minister talked about on the information convention that their wives had gotten to know one another over spin class dates. At one level, he complimented his lodgings at Blair Home, the house throughout the White Home reserved for international dignitaries: “The spare room within the flat in Quantity 10 Downing Road doesn’t fairly evaluate,” he quipped.
Nonetheless, their bond didn’t but seem like the identical shut one which Tony Blair cast with President Invoice Clinton after which with President George W. Bush. At one other level, Mr. Sunak invoked Churchill’s early-morning wanderings of the White Home and “bothering Mrs. Roosevelt.”
“Don’t fear,” Mr. Sunak mentioned, “you gained’t see me doing that.”
Stephen Fortress contributed reporting from London.