The British Prime Minister will meet US congressmen, business leaders and President Biden during a two-day visit.
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has embarked on a two-day visit to Washington, DC, where topics such as artificial intelligence (AI), the war in Ukraine and transatlantic trade will predominate.
Sunak opened his visit Wednesday by laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery, just outside Washington, DC, before meeting with congressional leaders. He will join US President Joe Biden at the White House on Thursday.
During his visit, Sunak said he would emphasize that the UK can play a “leading role” in regulating AI.
“Outside the US, we are probably the leading AI country among Democratic countries. We have an opportunity to get regulation right to protect our citizens,” he told TalkTV in the UK on Wednesday.
During the interview, he also rejected the idea that his country’s departure from the European Union in 2020 would undermine his ability to take on such a role. For its part, the EU bloc last week held its own dialogue with the US on drafting an AI code of conduct.
Sunak instead pointed to his track record as Chancellor of the Exchequer, the UK’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, as evidence that he was at the forefront of the myriad of issues raised by AI.
“I saw this was coming and I want to make sure that as a country we are well placed to both benefit from it, but also be protected from the damage,” he told TalkTV.
Sunak’s visit comes shortly after the Nova Kakhovka dam in Ukraine’s Kherson ruptured on Tuesday, flooding cities, towns and ecosystems. Ukraine and Russia have traded accusations on who was responsible, alleged possible sabotage, but neither the US nor the UK has officially identified a perpetrator of the incident.
Nevertheless, Sunak said on Wednesday that — if British intelligence services ascertained the breach to be the deliberate work of Russia – “it will mark a new low… an appalling barbarism on the part of Russia”.
He added, in an interview with ITV News, that Russia has broadly followed a “deliberate strategy of attacking civilian infrastructure”.
“It’s wrong, it’s barbaric and it’s horrible. That’s why we offer such powerful support [Ukraine] and we will continue to do so,” he says.
Perhaps most looming on the trip are Sunak’s efforts to boost trade between the two countries, which he said he hopes will one day reflect their longstanding military alliance.
The prospect of a full free trade deal with Washington was once seen by Brexit supporters as a possible economic price of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU. But the US has shown reluctance to consider such a move, leading the UK’s recent governments to look for more modest trade deals.
Despite the Biden administration’s lukewarm response to a free trade deal, Sunak issued a statement earlier this week advocating greater economic cooperation.
“Just as interoperability between our armies has given us a battlefield advantage over our adversaries, greater economic interoperability will give us a critical edge in the decades to come,” Sunak said.
The prime minister will also have separate meetings with US business leaders during his visit. On the way to Washington, Sunak announced more than 14 billion pounds ($17 billion) in investment from US companies in Britain – although that figure includes some funds already deployed.
Sunak’s administration was also under pressure to respond after Biden launched $369 billion in grants to boost the development of electric vehicles and other clean technologies in the US.
That investment prompted the EU to draw up its own industrial plan for the development of electric vehicles, a prospect that could threaten manufacturing activities in the UK, which face increased tariffs.
Sunak has said a new US-UK alliance would help both countries protect their supply chains and navigate a global economy in which new powers “manipulate global markets, withhold critical resources and seek to put a stranglehold on the industries that will shape our future.” determine”.