Word: browne
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Dark Suits, Buttoned Up Give or take the odd photo opportunity, such as a recent kickabout with French President Nicolas Sarkozy at the Arsenal soccer stadium in London, Brown's lighter side is seldom on display when he meets foreign leaders. "Tony Blair and President Sarkozy are personal friends," says an adviser to the French President. "Sarkozy's relationship with Brown is as warm and positive as it was with Blair in terms of foreign policy and European issues, but it lacks the personal friendship." Brown's joint press conference with Bush at Camp David last July was a study...
...Clinton, never quite won him the influence he expected - Blair "massively overstated the importance of personal charisma and personal connections," says Katwala - and Britons became disenchanted with their then leader precisely because of this closeness and the sulfurous taint of the Anglo-American alliance on Iraq. Katwala maintains that Brown's businesslike approach to foreign leaders is in tune with the times. Denis MacShane, a former Labour Foreign Office Minister, echoes the point: "Brown wants respectful state-to-state relations with tricky countries like Russia and China, but he's not getting into that schmoozy clinking of beer glasses...
Relations between Russia and Britain remain chilly since the 2006 murder in London of Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko, but there are signs that China is warming to Brown. He speaks regularly to the Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, has offered to help facilitate dialogue with the Dalai Lama, and is also lobbying the Chinese to put pressure on Sudan to accept the deployment of peacekeepers in Darfur...
Feng Zhongping of the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations says Brown is "building trust with the Chinese leaders. He thinks China will play a favorable role [in its relations with] Britain in the age of globalization. This opinion sets him apart from other European leaders." The Prime Minister dismisses reports that he entertained any thoughts of boycotting the Beijing Olympics in protest over China's crackdown in Tibet. He always intended, he says, to miss the opening celebrations but to attend the closing ceremonies, where the mantle of the Olympics will be passed on to London, which will host...
...Brown's low-key style of advocacy on such issues, however, has done him little good at home. He is battling splits within his party and is braced for an electoral mauling in civic and mayoral elections on May 1. A poll for the Sunday Times newspaper, published on April 13, put support for the Conservative opposition at 44% to Labour's 28% and showed that Brown's personal ratings have plummeted...