Guy Faulconbridge and Andrew MacAskill -
Britain’s so-called special relationship with the United States was one of the most enduring alliances of the 20th century, though Brexit and the presidency of Donald Trump have raised questions about its future. Trump begins a three-day visit to Britain on Monday almost a year after he created controversy during his last trip by praising Prime Minister Theresa May’s rivals and criticising the way she was handling the Brexit negotiations.
During Trump’s presidency, the alliance with Britain — famously nurtured by Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s — is increasingly fraying.
The United States is the world’s biggest economy, worth about $21.3 trillion or 24 per cent of global GDP, while Britain is the fifth largest, worth about $2.8 trillion or 3 per cent of global GDP.
While the European Union accounts for about half of Britain’s external trade, the United States is by far its biggest single trading partner, followed by Germany, the Netherlands, France and China.
Britain, for its part, is the United States’ seventh largest trade partner, after China, Canada, Mexico, Japan, Germany and South Korea. The United States and Britain both report a surplus in goods trade with the other, indicating they are not comparing like with like. For decades, Washington and London shared a desire to open up world markets to free trade.
The United States, which spends more on its military than the next seven highest-spending countries combined, is proposing to spend $686 billion on defence this year. It has the second largest number of nuclear weapons after Russia.
The US Navy operates a fleet of 14 Ohio-class nuclear submarines, each of which can carry 20 Trident II D5 missiles with multiple, independently-targeted warheads.
Britain, which has the biggest defence budget in the EU, spends about £40 billion ($53 billion) a year. France and Russia are the only other nuclear powers in Europe.
Britain has a fleet of four Vanguard-class submarines, which can each carry 16 Trident II D5 missiles. These are leased from a pool of such missiles that it shares with the US Navy.
The two militaries have fought side-by-side in Europe, Korea, Kuwait, Iraq, the former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria. Britain views the US-led Nato alliance as the foundation of its defence. Trump has demanded that Western allies pay more into Nato. US forces operate out of several bases in Britain including the Lakenheath, Croughton and Menwith Hill air bases. — Reuters
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