Wall Street Journal - January 27, 2005
Marc Champion at marc.champion@wsj.com, Frederick Kempe at fred.kempe@wsj.com and Roger Thurow at roger.thurow@wsj.com

DAVOS, Switzerland - President Bush still has his closest ally as he heads into his second term.

Speaking to an audience of global elites, British Prime Minister Tony Blair fiercely defended Mr. Bush's inaugural call to end global tyranny and promote democracy. He said in an interview afterward that "people have not marked sufficiently the evolution of American policy" on foreign affairs.

"I'm proud of the American alliance," he said in the interview, recalling his efforts with the U.S. to promote democracy in the Balkans, Afghanistan, Iraq and now in Palestinian territories. "I don't intend to apologize for it to anybody."

Mr. Blair said that he chose to restate the value of the U.S. alliance before the World Economic Forum's international audience because he felt too many people incorrectly saw the U.S. as the problem and not part of the solution to the world's problems.

"I'm shocked occasionally at how people view [the U.S.] today," Mr. Blair said over a beer in his hotel room, having changed from his dark suit into jeans and a polo shirt. His comments come less than a month before Mr. Bush is scheduled to visit the European Union headquarters in Brussels, as well as Germany and Slovakia, at a time of considerable public suspicion of Mr. Bush following his inaugural address. In Europe, Mr. Blair added, "it's necessary at the moment to restate the importance of the alliance."

Mr. Blair's unsolicited support for U.S. policy comes as he is preparing for national elections expected in May. Although many Britons don't support his alliance with Mr. Bush, Mr. Blair is still expected to win against a fractured opposition. Mr. Blair appears determined to secure his mark as an international leader before he leaves office during his next term.

"The only question for a political leader in international affairs is do you want to get the job done, or grandstand," Mr. Blair said, answering speculation that he might distance himself from Mr. Bush, who is unpopular among many British voters. "I'm not switching to grandstanding, that's a pathetic form of leadership." (see related article).

Mr. Blair's comments make clear that he intends to continue his efforts to provide a unifying force between Europe and the U.S., which he believes is the only road to achieve the solution of world problems including Mideast peace, climate change and African economic development.

That said, the coming year holds potential pitfalls for the relationship Mr. Blair has built with the U.S. president. Mr. Blair is taking a high-profile stance on some international issues where he -- along with much of Europe -- has had differences with Mr. Bush.

Mr. Blair used his platform as the opening speaker at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting to launch two priorities for Britain's presidency of the Group of Eight industrialized nations and of the European Union this year: tackling global warming and poverty in Africa. Britain has been a strong supporter of the Kyoto treaty on climate change, which the Bush administration has opposed.

Mr. Blair said he doesn't expect the U.S. to revisit the Kyoto Treaty, which expires in 2012. Britain has signed and America hasn't. He said he hoped, however, the next dialogue would be "more productive."

"The world doesn't want America to concede, but it does want America engaged," he said in his speech.

Regarding the Mideast, he said he expected the U.S. to support his London conference in March, which will be attended by Palestinian but not Israeli leaders. He also made clear the U.S. should follow through in the Middle East if Palestinians do their best to provide security in Gaza and establish a transparent economy and political structures. "I think the whole international community will expect if Palestinians really do step up to the mark on these things ... America will ensure disengagement from Gaza and parts of the West Bank is the first step and not the last step," he said.

That said, he defended the U.S. against criticism in Europe and elsewhere that it wasn't applying enough pressure on Israeli leader Ariel Sharon to make peace with the Palestinians. "There's a tendency in parts of Europe to ignore the fact that Israel has suffered from terror," he said.

He said that after peace talks failed during the Clinton administration, no American president was going to move until he felt he had the right partners on both sides, an opportunity that the death of longtime Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and the election this month of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas provides.

The prime minister also rebuffed domestic criticism that he was allying himself with a neoconservative president and said, "I thought [freedom and democracy] was what we used to be in favor of on the progressive center-left."

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