STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Secretary of State Antony Blinken is traveling to London today.
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Yeah. The United States and the United Kingdom have what they call a special relationship, and it's true around the world. The U.S., U.K. and three former British colonies form the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing group. The U.K. and Australia are key U.S. allies facing China, and the U.S. and U.K. work together to arm Ukraine. But when it comes to Israel, the U.K. has recently taken some actions that differ from its ally.
INSKEEP: Which NPR's Lauren Frayer is following from our bureau in London. Lauren, welcome.
LAUREN FRAYER, BYLINE: Thanks for having me, Steve.
INSKEEP: So what's changing in this relationship?
FRAYER: Well, there's been a change of government here. Conservatives were in charge of the U.K. for the past 14 years. That is until July, when Keir Starmer's center-left Labour Party won an election and took over. Now, Starmer's politics are pretty closely aligned with the Biden - and a prospective Harris administration. And so the U.S. is now like, game on. We finally have a like-minded partner here. But then, a week ago today, there was a bit of a divergence.
INSKEEP: Which was what?
FRAYER: So the U.K. suspended some of its arms exports to its ally Israel. The U.S. also, at one point, withheld and then resumed shipments of some big bombs to Israel. But the U.K. cited Israel's conduct in Gaza, said there's a risk that Israel might use British-made weapons to violate international humanitarian law. Israel, of course, denies breaking any laws with its military offensive in Gaza.
But Starmer's done a couple of other things as well. He restored funding to the U.N. aid agency helping Palestinians. His government has said it will not interfere with the International Criminal Court's efforts to request arrest warrants with - for Israeli officials. So all of those things put Starmer's foreign policy on a slightly different track than Washington's here.
INSKEEP: Well, given those differences in approach, what are the two sides saying about this visit by Antony Blinken?
FRAYER: They are not calling this a crisis trip, not at all - just the opposite. The State Department says he's here to reaffirm the special relationship. I mean, case in point, this weekend, the head of the CIA and the head of Britain's MI6 intelligence agency did a public event together. This is unprecedented.
INSKEEP: Yeah.
FRAYER: Here's what CIA Director Bill Burns said - this was at a Financial Times conference - talking about U.S.-U.K. intelligence sharing.
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BILL BURNS: This is a moment when those partnerships in a very complicated and contested world matters more than ever.
FRAYER: And the spy chiefs together also talked at that conference about what they've learned through intelligence sharing. They said that Ukraine's offensive inside Russia's Kursk region has rattled Russian elites. That's what they're picking up - that it could be a game changer. They also talked about new Gaza cease-fire proposals being prepared within days.
INSKEEP: OK. So they said this is not a crisis visit - that's fine - but CIA Director Bill Burns goes where there is a crisis. He shows up in Afghanistan. He shows up in Moscow, various places like that over the years. Now he goes to London. Then Blinken is on his way. So why so much focus on the U.K. now?
FRAYER: I mean, the U.K. had years of turmoil. Steve, you'll remember the Brexit years, the years of Boris Johnson. But the U.K. now looks like a really stable ally, especially at a time when we're seeing the far right surging in places like France and Germany. Starmer is actually heading to the White House later this week for his second visit in as many months. The backdrop is Russia's war and Ukraine, real threats to liberal democracy across the world.
INSKEEP: NPR's Lauren Frayer is in London. Thanks, as always, for your reporting.
FRAYER: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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