London, Feb 4, IRNA — The British government has denied accusations in parliament that its foreign policy was virtually nothing but ‘a lapdog’ to former US president George W Bush.
“I refute that analysis of the past decade,” Lord Davies, the government’s Deputy Chief Whip for following policy in the House of Lords, said during a debate Tuesday on the effects of changes in UK foreign policy as a result of the election of Barack Obama.
“The United States and the United Kingdom are close partners, and all intelligent people in the United Kingdom would want that partnership to continue, but it would be quite wrong to suggest that the United Kingdom has not pursued its own policy goals,” Davies said.
“We made clear to the United States — on, for instance, the issues of Guantanamo Bay, which we wanted closed, extraordinary rendition, and Diego Garcia — our disagreement with the policy of the previous president of the United States,” he said.
His denial came after Conservative MP Lord Marlesford said the UK’s relations with the US must be ‘based on equality of value of the views and advice on foreign policy — something on which we have much to offer’.
“We must not again, as we have over much of the past 10 years, waste that relationship by acting as a lapdog to the United States,” said Marlesford, who is also a member of the House of Lords EU sub-committee.
Davies insisted that his government’s foreign policy is ‘driven by long-term objectives including countering terrorism and proliferation, preventing conflict, combating climate change and strengthening international organizations’.
“The United States, under presidents of both political parties from Franklin Roosevelt onwards, has long been Britain’s most important bilateral partner in pursuing its goals. We look forward to working closely with President Obama to strengthen this special relationship,” he said.
Former Liberal Democrat leader in the upper chamber, Lord Wallace also criticized the government for ‘following far too closely the Bush Administration foreign policy on a range of issues’.
Wallace told fellow peers that he very much hoped that ‘British foreign policy will change now with a new and much more enlightened Administration’.
“Do they also recognize that our illusion of a unique special relationship with the United States is not shared in Washington? The United States clearly has special relationships with Israel, Canada, Mexico, Japan and a great many other countries,” he further said.
But Davies insisted that while it was ‘entirely possible and compatible’ for the US to develop its ties with other significant actors on the world stage, there was ‘the special dimension’ to the relationship between the United Kingdom and the United States.