Best friends? Probably not. But on Monday the leaders of two of the west’s most important allies meet in Washington. President Obama is expected to host a bilateral meeting with British Prime Minister David Cameron at the White House, followed by a joint news conference. Before the meeting, Cameron will visit FBI headquarters to learn more about the U.S. response to the Boston bombings. The role of global terrorism has linked the U.S. and UK for most of the current century, as have the wars the two have often fought in concert to fight it. Perhaps that is why much of the focus of the Prime Minister’s trip will be on the road ahead in Syria. Last week, Cameron met with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and said the two made “real progress” on Syria. Cameron backs plans for an international peace conference and has called for lifting an EU arms embargo on Syria. However, his Syria position has put him at odds with most of the British population, which is still smarting from Britain’s alliance with the U.S. in Iraq during the Bush Administration. Cameron’s visit also comes ahead of next month’s G8 summit and amid the backdrop of Great Britain’s struggles with the government’s austerity measures. The Wall Street Journal published an op-ed written by Cameron, in which the Prime Minister calls for a U.S.-EU trade deal that he says will result in $100 billion in extra growth for the U.S. Cameron and President Obama have a mostly positive history: they have even shared hot dogs and taken in a basketball game together. But is their “friendship” simply for public political purposes, or something deeper? We’ll discuss Cameron and Obama’s special relationship when msnbc’s Joy Reid hosts the program at noon ET.
PANEL
Fmr. Gov. Ed Rendell (D-PA), NBC News Political Analyst (@govedrendell)
Katrina Vanden Heuvel, Editor, The Nation (@katrinanation)
Rana Foroohar, Assisting Managing Editor, TIME (@ranaforoohar)
Bob Herbert, Distinguished Senior Fellow, Demos (@bobherbert)
REPORTER Peter Alexander, NBC News White House Correspondent (@PeterAlexander) BULLPEN Martin Bashir, Host of msnbc’s “The Martin Bashir Show” (@BashirLive)
Robert Gifford Recommended
