The mood on board the USS Missouri is celebratory. But the underlying geopolitics is bleak. The US, the UK and Australia, having fought on the same side in two world wars, are again preparing for a possible global conflict.
When an American president and a British prime minister stand side by side on a warship, it is hard to avoid the historical echoes. In August 1941, Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill met off the coast of Newfoundland to sign the Atlantic Charter, setting out a joint vision for a postwar world.
The Pacific is the site for Tuesday’s (AEDT) summit between Joe Biden, Rishi Sunak and Anthony Albanese. The leaders of the US, UK and Australia met on board the USS Missouri to spell out the AUKUS accord, an arms and technology deal centred on supplying nuclear-powered submarines to Australia.
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Financial Times
Gideon Rachman is chief foreign affairs columnist for the Financial Times. His particular interests include American foreign policy, the European Union and globalisation.
