UK's Andy Burnham to meet Donald Trump. Few first talks ended in a joint statement.
UK prime minister Andy Burnham is expected to meet US president Donald Trump for the first time at the United Nations in New York next week.
What happened
Andy Burnham is expected to meet Donald Trump in person for the first time at the UN General Assembly in New York next week; Downing Street has confirmed the trip but no meetings with individual leaders.
Andy Burnham goes to New York for the UN General Assembly. It is his first as prime minister. Downing Street has confirmed that he will attend, but not a one-to-one meeting with any leader. Officials said such meetings are often confirmed only once they take place. Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband will travel with him.
Burnham became prime minister on and called Trump that afternoon. They spoke again on about Ukraine, the Middle East and the economy. Neither Downing Street summary of the calls mentions a trade or technology agreement being prepared.
The two men have had some public disagreements. In June Trump called Burnham very liberal and described him as a town mayor. Last week Trump backed a united Ireland, meaning Northern Ireland leaving the UK to join Ireland. Downing Street answered that the support needed to call a vote on it was not there.
This month the UK also put sanctions on people and companies linked to Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
The UN lists the general debate of its 81st General Assembly from 22 to and on . Leaders usually hold their one-to-one meetings on the edges of that week.
Sources: The Guardian, GOV.UK (2), BBC, BBC, United Nations, high-level meetings of the 81st session
The Pattern
Six first meetings since 2010, one joint statement on the day. We looked at every UK prime minister since 2010 whose first face-to-face talks with a sitting US president took place at or around a summit of world leaders. We checked whether the two countries alone published a joint statement or a named partnership within 31 days. Joe Biden is the president in three of the six. The one Trump case is from his first term, with a different team.
Show the other 4 cases
The Read
History points to no joint statement on the day. Of six first summit meetings since 2010 between a new UK prime minister and a sitting US president, one ended with a joint UK-US statement that day. That was Boris Johnson and Donald Trump at the G7 in 2019, and the statement set up a working group on trade. The likely reason is time. Summit talks are short and officials are busy with the summit, while a joint document has to be written in advance. When a named partnership did follow, with Rishi Sunak and Joe Biden in 2022, it came three weeks later.
Some things point the other way. Trump is the only president in the record who signed up to a same-day text, and in he signed trade papers with Keir Starmer at the G7 in Canada. Against that, no agreement has been announced for New York, and the two governments disagree over Irish unification and the settlement sanctions. The record is also small, six meetings, and three of them have the same president. Visits made only for the meeting, such as Gordon Brown’s trip to Camp David in 2007, are prepared differently and are left out.
A document already prepared in private, for example on trade and ready to sign in New York, would change the answer. If the two men do not meet by , both markets are cancelled.
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