Trump, Burnham clash over oil, islands and Britain’s maritime power
by Joseph Hammond · The Washington TimesLONDON — President Trump and British Prime Minister Andy Burnham — increasingly at odds over energy, sovereignty and strategic control — are expected to meet Tuesday on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
The British prime minister, in office less than three months, is set to address the annual gathering of world leaders the same day.
Mr. Trump has repeatedly urged Britain to exploit more of its domestic oil and gas reserves, arguing that years of restrictions on North Sea development have driven up energy prices.
“I told him, you have two problems: immigration and energy,” Mr. Trump said in an interview aired Sept. 2 by GB News, a conservative British media outlet. The American president described the North Sea as a potential “goldmine” for Britain.
Mr. Trump is more of an Anglophile than many recent American presidents. He owns a world-class golf resort in Scotland, the country where his mother was born, and the blunt-spoken billionaire often expresses a more subdued personal respect for King Charles.
But Mr. Trump’s reverence for the monarchy has not stopped him from sparring with successive British governments on several issues.
The Labor Party pledged in 2024 that there would be no new North Sea exploration licenses. Mr. Burnham is navigating around that vow through “tiebacks,” potentially allowing additional oil and gas to flow while technically preserving that commitment.
A decision on the Shell- and Equinor-backed Jackdaw gasfield North Sea project was planned for September but has reportedly been delayed.
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Sources told The Washington Times that no announcement is expected until after the Oct. 8 parliamentary by-election in Holborn and St. Pancras. The Labor Party expects stiff resistance from the Green Party in that north London district that was once held by Mr. Burnham’s predecessor, Keir Starmer.
“Many in the Labor Party see this election as a litmus,” said Will Awomoyi, a political accountability activist in London.
“If Labor does well, Mr. Burnham will likely call a snap general election to further solidify his political position. The Labor Party is making the case that they are better stewards of the environment than the Green Party, which they say is less concerned about environmental issues and more about conflicts thousands of miles from the U.K., like Israel-Palestine,” Mr. Awomoyi said.
London’s policy on oil exploration in the North Atlantic differs sharply from its position in the South Atlantic. London maintains that its North Sea licensing policy does not apply to the Falkland Islands, a self-governing British Overseas Territory — though Argentina for decades has maintained the islands are rightfully theirs.
Drilling in the Sea Lion field, located 137 miles north of the Falklands, is expected early next year. If all goes to plan, the field is expected to begin oil production in 2028.
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“Burnham is very cautious about expanding oil production in the North Sea, but far more assertive when it comes to the Sea Lion fields in the Falklands,” said Kiran Rai, a political commentator and former adviser to a Labor Party member of Parliament in an interview with The Washington Times. “Of course, the two locations have different domestic political calculations, and the U.K. fought a war over the Falkland Islands in living memory.”
After some initial equivocation and failed peace-brokering, the United States ultimately sided in 1982 with Britain over Argentina during that 10-week conflict. The United States provided Britain with intelligence and logistical support.
But Mr. Trump has indicated that he may be reconsidering U.S. support for British sovereignty over the Falklands — in part because of what the American president sees as an underfunded and ill-equipped British military.
“I just don’t know if you have the capacity to do it,” Trump told GB News on Sept. 3., referring to Britain’s ability to defend the islands off the Argentinian coast.
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British military power is far different today than it was at the height of the Cold War. Mr. Trump has not explicitly demanded a larger Royal Navy, but his administration strongly backs AUKUS, the U.S.-British-Australian submarine pact that is intended to expand Britain’s nuclear-powered attack-submarine fleet.
In the early 1980s, the Royal Navy had roughly 55 destroyers and frigates and two aircraft carriers. Today it has 11 destroyers and frigates and two carriers. Conversely, Britain maintains a larger military presence on the Falkland Islands, including four Typhoon fighters supported by hundreds of military personnel, said Peter Marko Tase, a professor at the National University of the East in Paraguay.
Argentina’s President Javier Milei, a Trump ally, has seized on Mr. Trump’s comments about the Falklands, announcing new military spending to rebuild Argentina’s armed forces.
The Falklands dispute is just one of several ongoing debates about Britain’s overseas territories. Argentina has noted London’s willingness to transfer sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago — including Diego Garcia, home to a major U.S.-British military base — even as Britain insists that sovereignty over the Falklands is not open to negotiation.
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Mr. Trump has turned sharply against the British-Mauritian transfer plan. The president has called the proposed territorial transfer “total weakness.”
The Trump administration worries that the transfer could create strategic opportunities for China and Russia in the Indian Ocean. Under the terms of the agreement, the U.S. and Britain would be able to operate their military facility there under a 99-year lease.
Where Britain emphasizes international law and constitutional distinctions, Mr. Trump tends to frame the same questions more directly in terms of national interest. The meeting between Mr. Trump and Mr. Burnham could heighten the differences or anchor a new working relationship.
“In all of these cases, what matters from the United Kingdom perspective is that U.K. law is closely followed,” Mr. Tase said. “The United Kingdom is not a collection of states, but there are very different legal arrangements governing Scotland and an overseas territory such as the Falkland Islands. What matters for Mr. Trump is the geostrategic interest, and this might lead to further clashes between him and the prime minister.”
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Mr. Trump’s disagreements with Britain may appear scattered across three oceans, but they increasingly form a pattern. None of these disputes is likely on its own to rupture the U.S.-British “special relationship” altogether. Together, however, they show how dramatically the strategic geography around that alliance is changing.
This is Mr. Burnham’s second foreign trip since taking office in July. His first was to Kyiv, Ukraine, and he has since said he will use his expected meeting with the president to urge Mr. Trump to send more aid to the Ukrainians.