Trump praises new British PM Andy Burnham but slams UK deal on Indian Ocean islands

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Freshly in office, Prime Minister Andy Burnham got off to a strong start with U.S. President Donald Trump at their first meeting on Tuesday, with the president brushing aside differences over the Middle East and calling the British leader “a natural business person.”

The two men met for more than the scheduled 30 minutes on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York, where Burnham used his inaugural speech at the global gathering to warn of the dangers posed by unconstrained artificial intelligence and socially corrosive disinformation.

It’s a baptism of fire for the neophyte leader, who has gone from mayor of the northwest England city of Manchester to leader of a G7 country in a matter of weeks.

But despite U.K. nerves about how the meeting with Trump would go, as they sat in front of U.K. and U.S. flags, Trump declared that trans-Atlantic relations were “more up than they were with your last prime minister.”

“Based on our relationship with the prime minister, Andy, I think we’re doing very well,” he said.

U.K. officials know that the president can be fickle. Trump initially warmed to Burnham’s predecessor, Keir Starmer, before falling out over the U.K.’s unwillingness to join the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. But there was relief that Burnham emerged largely unscathed from his first meeting with a president who once dismissed him as “the mayor of a town.”

“We don’t hold it against you,” Burnham said.

Burnham nodded at U.S.-U.K. differences, noting that Trump had been “good enough to listen to us” on issues including trade and the Falkland Islands. Trump has recently mused about the future of the British-controlled South Atlantic archipelago, which is also claimed by Argentina, which calls it the Malvinas. The two nations fought a brief 1982 war over the islands.

But on one potential flashpoint, the U.K.’s decision to ban trade with Israeli settlements in the West Bank, Trump professed ignorance.

Chagos Islands remain a point of contention

Trump’s harshest words were reserved for Britain’s plan to hand sovereignty of the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean to Mauritius. The U.K. says the deal will preserve the future of a strategic U.S. military base on one of the islands, Diego Garcia. But ratification of an agreement stalled after the Trump administration withdrew its support. U.K. officials acknowledge the deal is now in limbo.

Trump called it “a terrible deal” over a “very important piece of real estate, militarily and strategically.”

“I think the prime minister is going to be looking at it,” he said.

Burnham said Britain is working to come to an agreement, and “I’m confident we can find it working with our U.S. partners.”

Before the meeting, Burnham said he would raise with Trump ways to end the on-off war between the U.S. and Iran, which has choked off oil tankers moving through the Strait of Hormuz and sent global fuel prices soaring. Houthi attacks on Saudi energy infrastructure are making the problem worse while rendering Burnham’s pledge to ease cost of living pressure for British voters even harder.

As he flew to New York for the annual gathering of world leaders, Burnham announced he had authorized limited military support for Saudi Arabia to repel attacks from Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. A Royal Air Force plane will refuel Saudi jets engaged in “defensive” action to shoot down Houthi missiles, he said.

Burnham also said he would urge Trump to step up U.S. support for Ukraine by providing air-defense missiles to Ukraine ahead of another winter of Russian attacks. It was unclear whether he made any progress on that front.

Burnham focused on AI in his UN speech

In his speech to the General Assembly, Burnham argued that Britain could be both a driving force and hand of caution in the dizzying evolution of artificial intelligence.

Burnham said world leaders must heed warnings about AI and set up global standards to oversee it because “fundamental decisions on this technology are too important to be left to chance.”

He said AI has immense potential but will also be “a source of disruption to the way we live and work – and a multiplier of risk. We’ve all heard the warnings – which we must heed.”

Burnham said the U.K. will try to persuade other countries to adopt rules on transparency and access to AI models — and, even tougher, to get tech companies to sign up, too.

That is a potential point of tension with Trump, who told the U.N. on Tuesday that the U.S “totally rejects any attempt to construct a globalist scheme” to regulate AI.

Burnham also will said Britain would “draw a line under the last decade” since the U.K.’s 2016 decision to leave the European Union. He suggested Brexit was a point at which the country took a wrong turn, and a decision fueled in part by misinformation.

He said Russia and other states are using AI-augmented misinformation and disinformation to corrode democracy, and he has asked British security chiefs to set up a National Center for Information Defense to counter the threat.

“Over the last decade we have given too much ground to those who want to run a negative, corrosive narrative about life in Britain, which bears no resemblance to reality,” Burnham said. “Well, no more.”