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Karen Pierce Is Named U.K. Ambassador to U.S. Karen Pierce Is Named U.K. Ambassador to U.S.
(about 1 hour later)
LONDON — Britain has named Karen Pierce, a career diplomat and the country’s current ambassador to the United Nations, as its new ambassador to the United States, the prime minister’s office announced on Friday. LONDON — Karen Pierce, a senior career diplomat, will become Britain’s next ambassador to the United States, inheriting the tricky task of strengthening the country’s somewhat frayed “special relationship” with Washington at a time when London is at odds with Washington over several critical policies.
Ms. Pierce succeeds Kim Darroch, who announced his resignation last year after his blunt assessments of President Trump as “radiating insecurity” and the Trump administration as diplomatically “clumsy and inept” were leaked. Ms. Pierce, the first woman to be chosen for the new role, is currently Britain’s permanent representative to the United Nations. She will succeed Kim Darroch, who resigned last year after the leak of diplomatic cables revealed he had characterized the Trump administration as “clumsy and inept,” among other things.
Mr. Darroch said he would step down after the release of those comments, saying that the situation had left him in an untenable position. Mr. Trump responded by referring to the ambassador as “wacky,” a “very stupid guy” and a “pompous fool.” President Trump responded by describing Mr. Darroch as “wacky,” a “very stupid guy” and a “pompous fool,” while adding that Theresa May, who was prime minister at the time, was “foolish” for ignoring his advice on Britain’s exit from the European Union.
Ms. Pierce, who served as Britain’s representative to the United Nations for less than two years, will take up the position at a crucial time in the so-called special relationship between the two countries. When Boris Johnson took over from Mrs. May last year, he basked in warm praise from Mr. Trump, who supports the new government’s full-throated commitment to Brexit. And having left the European Union last month, Britain wants to strike a free-trade agreement with the United States as soon as possible.
Britain is laying the groundwork for what it regards as a vital trade deal with the United States after having left the European Union, and Ms. Pierce will find herself in a crucial position during the negotiations. But just days after Britain’s official exit from the bloc, trans-Atlantic relations were roiled over Britain’s decision to defy American warnings and give the Chinese telecommunications firm Huawei a limited role in the construction of the new British 5G broadband network.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has maintained good relations with Mr. Trump, but the American president demonstrated no reluctance to criticize his predecessor, Theresa May, as well as the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan. As it announced the appointment of Ms. Pierce on Friday, Downing Street also refused to comment on a report in The Financial Times that Mr. Trump’s reaction to the Huawei decision in a phone call was “apoplectic.”
Those comments, along with American efforts to prevent Britain from using products from the Chinese electronics giant Huawei in its 5G network, have introduced an element of fragility into the relationship. Huawei is not the only contentious issue threatening the British-American relationship. British diplomats are also fretting over differences with Washington over Britain’s plans for a digital services tax that would hit large American corporations like Google and Amazon, and its policy toward Iran.
“I am honored to have been asked to represent the U.K. in the U.S.,” said Ms. Pierce, who will be the first woman to hold the position, in a statement. “I think it is the U.K.’s single most important relationship. There is a deep bond between Britain and the US, built on many pillars.” While London has said positive things about Mr. Trump’s peace initiative for the Middle East, its Iran policy is in line with that of France and Germany, which, against mounting odds, want to keep alive the nuclear deal that Iran signed during the Obama years.
Ms. Pierce is one of Britain’s most experienced diplomats, holding a variety of roles in the diplomatic corps, including postings overseas in Japan, Switzerland and the United States. Mr. Trump is unpopular with much of the British public, so Mr. Johnson has tried to cultivate the president personally while not being seen as bending to his wishes.
She started with the Foreign Office in 1981. Before moving to the United Nations, she was the chief operating officer for the Foreign Office, where she worked for Mr. Johnson, who was foreign secretary at the time and is now the prime minister. Against this backdrop, Ms. Pierce, who has served as Britain’s top diplomat at the United Nations, the World Trade Organization and in Afghanistan, will have the job of trying to smooth trade negotiations with the United States.
Ms. Pierce said she was “honored” to be offered the position, adding that the trans-Atlantic link was Britain’s single most important bilateral relationship.
“There is a deep bond between Britain and the US, built on many pillars,” she said in a statement, adding that she looked forward to working with colleagues “to strengthen and even further deepen the special relationship between our two countries and peoples.”
Britain’s foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, in a statement, “It is a time of huge opportunity for the friendship between the U.K. and U.S., and I am delighted that Karen Pierce will take forward this exciting new chapter in our relationship.”
“We’re proud to be sending to Washington such an outstanding diplomat, and I warmly congratulate her on her appointment,” he added.
Ms. Pierce will assume her new role once diplomatic formalities have been concluded.
She will not find trade talks between Britain and the United States easy going, however. Many Britons are opposed to importing American food, fretting about chlorinated chicken, hormone-fed cows and standards of humane treatment. Others worry about giving American pharmaceutical firms the right to sell drugs in Britain at market prices, rather than the reduced prices now negotiated by the National Health Service.
But without some concessions on issues like these, it is hard to see the United States agreeing to any substantial trade deal, let alone getting it through Congress — a point made sharply by Mr. Darroch in his first public comments since being withdrawn from Washington.
In any event, the appointment of Ms. Pierce will be a relief to many British diplomats because there had been pressure on Mr. Johnson to appoint a politician to represent him in Washington.
Usually, British ambassadors are drawn from the ranks of career professionals, but some political appointments have been made in the past. In 2016, Mr. Trump suggested that his ally, Nigel Farage, the Brexit campaigner, might make a good candidate for the position.
That was never likely to happen. British officials, however, will also have noticed that Mr. Farage still appears to have influence in the White House, perhaps more than some of them.
This week, he wrote on Twitter that he had held a “great meeting” with the president in the Oval Office. It came during the period that Mr. Trump was acquitted by the Senate in his impeachment trial.
Michael Wolgelenter contributed reporting.