Parliamentary Visit to Washington D.C.

February 2023

During the February recess, the Coalition for Global Prosperity hosted a parliamentary visit to Washington D.C. with a delegation of MPs in order to discuss and address the U.S. and the UK’s shared global foreign policy challenges and opportunities with key decision-makers across the Atlantic. We were joined by the Rt Hon Vicky Ford MP (CON), the Rt Hon David Mundell MP (CON), Bim Afolami MP (CON), and Peter Gibson MP (CON). 

Over the three-day visit, the delegation met with a variety of decision-makers and leading experts in the fields of defence, development and diplomacy. On Day 1, meetings were held with senior directors at the World Bank Group, Karen Donfried from the State Department, Andrew Steer, Executive Director of the Bezos Earth Fund, and Masood Ahmed, CEO of the Center for Global Development. In partnership with U.S. Global Leadership Coalition (USGLC), the Members of Parliament also met with General Dick Cody and Vice Admiral Lee Gunn as part of a private roundtable focusing on the US-UK defence relationship. 

On Day 2, the delegation visited the White House, meeting retired Rear Admiral John Kirby, Coordinator for Strategic Communications at the National Security Council in the White House, as well as Senator Ben Cardin (D-Maryland), senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Conversations with both explored threats to democracy and the role of democratic institutions, alongside the importance of a joint strategic UK-US approach to tackle these threats and bring freedom, security and prosperity to those who need it most. 

As part of the 1946 Forum, an international caucus championing the transatlantic partnership as a force for good, MPs also met with leading climate and security voices, including Sherri Goodman, Vice Chair of the Secretary of State’s International Security Advisory Board, Michael Chertoff, former United States Secretary of Homeland Security and Erin Sikorsky, Director of the Center for Climate & Security, to discuss the impacts of climate change on global stability.

On the third and final day of the visit, the delegation met with Dame Karen Pierce, the British Ambassador to the United States, at the British Embassy in D.C. They also spoke with representatives from the transatlantic team at the International Republican Institute, a nonprofit organisation that works to strengthen civil society and advance democracy worldwide.