(AFP) – British foreign minister David Lammy and JD Vance talked Gaza during a meeting on Friday as the US vice president kicked off his holiday in the United Kingdom. Lammy hosted Vance at his country retreat in Chevening in Kent, southeast of London, where the pair went fishing in a carp pond before getting down to business.
Vance told reporters the United States had “no plans” to follow Britain by recognising a Palestinian state, as the meeting got under way at the 17th-century mansion. “I don’t know what it would mean to really recognise a Palestinian state, given the lack of functional government there,” Vance said. He added that he expected President Donald Trump to “talk at some point to the media about his response” to Israel’s plan to “take military control” of the Palestinian territory of Gaza. “Our goals are very clear. We want to make it so that Hamas can’t attack innocent people. We want to solve humanitarian problems in Gaza,” Vance said.
The two men also discussed the war in Ukraine ahead of a possible summit next week between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin as the US president tries to end the more than three-year-long conflict. Lammy, of the centre-left Labour party, and the Republican Vance have struck up a warm relationship despite their different political strands, bonding over their difficult childhoods and shared Christian faith. Lammy reportedly attended mass at the vice president’s residence in Washington in March.
Vance said Lammy had become a “good friend” but teased that his three young children were better at fishing than Britain’s top diplomat. “Unfortunately, the one strain on the special relationship is that all of my kids caught fish, but the foreign secretary did not,” he joked.
Vance is due to stay at Chevening throughout the weekend, according to Britain’s foreign ministry. His family will then spend some time in the Cotswolds region in western England, UK media have reported. Reports have also said Vance will visit Scotland, where Trump spent five days at his golf resorts last month. While there, he signed a trade deal with European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen and met with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Trump also played golf and opened a new 18-hole course. He is due back in the UK for a state visit in September.
© 2024 AFP
