Blair calls for closer EU-US ties
The Prime Minister has called on European leaders to overcome their “state of denial” over the re-election of US President George Bush.
In a wide-ranging interview with The Times newspaper on Friday – which also covers Iran, North Korea, the Middle East and economic reform -Tony Blair says: “America has spoken. The rest of the world should listen”.
“The fact is that president Bush is there for four years. He is there because the American people have chosen him,” he says.
Mr Blair forecasted European leaders would be more “receptive” to the news in the coming weeks.
But he confessed to The Times that he went to bed on Wednesday believing John Kerry was set for the White House.
Waking up the next day, he found Mr Bush had won.
The British leader declined to field his thoughts on whom would make the better leader.
“I always made clear throughout that I would remain neutral and that is the way it is going to stay,” he said.
Mr Blair is in Brussels for a two-day summit on economic and asylum matters with leaders from the EU’s 25 nations.
The prime minister said Britain was “uniquely placed” given its “immensely strong” special relationship with the US to act as a bridge between an increasingly isolated America and Europe.
He said Mr Bush would be more prepared to forge closer alliances with European leaders in his second term of office.
“There was a real sense that in the second term the president has space and energy to develop an agenda that I hope can unify Europe and America,” he said.
“It is important that America listens to the rest of the world too.”
Mr Blair said Britain’s “shoulder-to-shoulder” stance with the US over the 2003 Iraq war and the overarching war on terror was undertaken not out “blind loyalty” or “compulsion as an ally” but because it was right.
European leaders will be joined by Iraqi Interim Prime Minister, Iyad Allawi, on Friday.
