Biarritz, FranceCNN)Xhis weekend,oris Johnsons making his leadership debut as on theorld stage at the G7n the French resort of Biarritz.
It is a moment the UK Prime Minister has cherished since childhood. And, in the eyes of many Brits, he has gambled the UK's future to achieve it.
Since becoming PM, Johnson has had one goal: to get the UK out of the European Union, a message he has hammered home this week in meetings with France's President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
In Biarritz, he will also meet with US President Donald Trump, Japan's Shinzo Abe, and Canada's Justin Trudeau. Johnson's moment in the sun will come when, if as expected, he and Trump unveil their much-hyped steps to a post-Brexit trade deal.
It will be a handy trophy of sorts, which is intended to dazzle British voters and convince them that, despite the advice of the government's own civil servants and experts, Brexit will benefit the British economy.
All of which will soon be hugely important as Johnson faces a looming challenge to his leadership and a general election.
While Brexit is the talk of diplomats and business leaders the world over, little mention is being made of his apparent bet on America, the presidency of Trump, and all that entails.
To side with America rather than the EU, as Johnson has been showing recently, risks committing the UK to far more than Brexit.
Boris Johnson stakes future on Donald Trump after Brexit. The gamble may break Britain
Analysis byic Robertson, CNN
Updated at530 GMT (2330 HKT) August 24, 2019
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Biarritz, FranceCNN)Xhis weekend,oris Johnsons making his leadership debut as on theorld stage at the G7n the French resort of Biarritz.
It is a moment the UK Prime Minister has cherished since childhood. And, in the eyes of many Brits, he has gambled the UK's future to achieve it.
Since becoming PM, Johnson has had one goal: to get the UK out of the European Union, a message he has hammered home this week in meetings with France's President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
In Biarritz, he will also meet with US President Donald Trump, Japan's Shinzo Abe, and Canada's Justin Trudeau. Johnson's moment in the sun will come when, if as expected, he and Trump unveil their much-hyped steps to a post-Brexit trade deal.
Related Article:K faces food and fuel shortages in no-deal Brexit, says leaked plan
It will be a handy trophy of sorts, which is intended to dazzle British voters and convince them that, despite the advice of the government's own civil servants and experts, Brexit will benefit the British economy.
All of which will soon be hugely important as Johnson faces a looming challenge to his leadership and a general election.
While Brexit is the talk of diplomats and business leaders the world over, little mention is being made of his apparent bet on America, the presidency of Trump, and all that entails.
To side with America rather than the EU, as Johnson has been showing recently, risks committing the UK to far more than Brexit.
Johnson is a risk-taker: while his gamble on Trump might benefit him today, it also risks breaking Britain, splitting the four-nation Union, and potentially putting it on the wrong side of emerging geopolitical fault lines.
The reasons are relatively straightforward: the world has changed a lot since the Brexit vote in 2016.
Indeed it is a very different place than it was when former prime minister David Cameron promised a referendum on EU membership in 2013.
However while the world has moved on, Euroskeptics have not.
Clash of the titans
Trump won the US presidential election a few months after Brexit and has subsequently shown that America is not the reliable ally it once was.
He has picked fights with friends, Germany, Canada, France, and even the UK, while mollycoddling dictators like North Korea's Kim Jong Un. This week, in an extraordinary move even by his own unpredictable standards, he dissed Denmark, dumping out of an upcoming state visit, deeming it no longer worthwhile because it won't sell him Greenland.
Trump is utterly undependable, but it is in the case of China that he most threatens the post-Brexit calculus.
The Asian superpower is coming of age, inevitably challenging the United States. China believes its technology sector should have a fair shake at dominating and appears willing to endure a bitter trade war with Trump to achieve it.
A clash of these titans is on the horizon, and neither can be relied on to act in a way that might have been imagined five years ago.
If Johnson wants a taste of what this could ultimately look like, he needs to look beyond the uplifting platitudes of fast trade deals with the US that Trump's national security adviser, John Bolton, promised duringis visit to London earlier this month.
Betting the bank on US
If Johnson looks to Hong Kong and listens to the threats thrown at the UK by Beijing, he won't hear anything remotely friendly. Any wish to have a fruitful trade deal with China is exactly that