SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
This week, House Speaker Mike Johnson addressed British lawmakers in a speech marking 250 years since America gained independence from Britain. He said that, standing in Parliament, he felt the weight of the two countries' shared histories.
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MIKE JOHNSON: As proud Americans, it is as though we have returned to the spiritual birthplace of our own nation.
DETROW: But the so-called special relationship between the U.S. and the U.K. looks more fragile than ever. Some in Britain are even asking whether this special relationship might end in a divorce. NPR's Fatima Al-Kassab reports.
FATIMA AL-KASSAB, BYLINE: President Trump's threats to impose tariffs on European countries who oppose his desire to take over Greenland prompted the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, to make an emergency address to the nation this week. He acknowledged that Trump's threats have made the world a much more turbulent place, but he said the U.K. needs the U.S., and he explained why.
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PRIME MINISTER KEIR STARMER: The interaction on intelligence between the U.S. and the U.K. is the closest relationship of any two countries in the world, and that keeps us safe in ways I can't explain to you.
AL-KASSAB: George Robertson is the former general secretary of NATO and says these ties run deep.
GEORGE ROBERTSON: Deep down, there is a much closer relationship in the intelligence sphere, in the security areas, and military cooperation is deep and permanent.
AL-KASSAB: And it's a partnership that benefits the U.S. too, says Robertson.
ROBERTSON: The Americans depend very much on the quality and the quantity of the intelligence, for example, that is provided by the United Kingdom.
AL-KASSAB: This goes back a long way, ever since American troops landed on U.K. soil to help fight World War II.
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UNIDENTIFIED NEWSREEL ANNOUNCER: Another picture that speaks louder than words of Anglo-American solidarity - the arrival in Northern Ireland of the first contingent of the United States Army to stations in the United Kingdom.
AL-KASSAB: Nowadays, the U.S. military is deeply intertwined with the armed forces of the U.K., as Ruth Deyermond, lecturer in the department of war studies at King's College London, explains.
RUTH DEYERMOND: The U.K. nuclear deterrent is closely tied to the United States. But also, of course, you have things like American bases on U.K. soil.
AL-KASSAB: This is all under fresh scrutiny as the relationship between the two allies hits a new low, says Deyermond.
DEYERMOND: This is certainly the worst point in the so-called special relationship since the Suez crisis 70 years ago. There's been nothing remotely comparable to this.
AL-KASSAB: Britons are now thinking the unthinkable and rethinking these decades-long ties.
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UNIDENTIFIED NEWSCASTER #1: Is the special relationship now a specious relationship?
UNIDENTIFIED NEWSCASTER #2: The special relationship - I mean, it's in a really bad way right now.
UNIDENTIFIED NEWSCASTER #3: The special relationship - so-called - does that still apply?
AL-KASSAB: That's just some of the commentary in the British media this week. Those voices were from the BBC and Sky News. One column in the conservative Telegraph newspaper argued that Britons need to wean themselves off America. Here's Ruth Deyermond from King's College London again.
DEYERMOND: The question has to be asked whether the close relationship with the U.S. on matters of security is now actually a security vulnerability. And again, it's extremely disturbing to have to say that. The idea that the U.S. now poses a threat on - is something that's very - certainly very difficult for British politicians to acknowledge, but I think it's a reality that they are all having to confront.
AL-KASSAB: The unpredictability of the Trump administration is forcing the U.K. to face up to the uncomfortable truth that it may no longer be wise to rely on its long-standing ally, she says.
DEYERMOND: Whether some aspect of the special relationship can survive this, I think, is an open question. But I think in the longer term, the security aspects of that relationship are on the way out, I'm afraid, I fear.
AL-KASSAB: She says that while disentangling from America will be a long and costly process, it is becoming an increasingly necessary one. Fatima Al-Kassab, NPR News, London. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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