Instead, he can expect a warm welcome in Washington on Tuesday, as the trans-Atlantic leaders meet for wide-ranging talks intended to deepen ties that are expected to focus on security, climate and economic regulation in the run-up to Britain hosting a major environmental conference at the end of October.

It is a moment Johnson's team regards as a triumph: validation that "global Britain" can thrive on the world stage after its divorce last year from the European Union. It comes amid a US rift with EU rival France, in which Britain played a crucial part.

A submarine deal the United States and Britain recently announced with Australia came at France's expense, sparking France to withdraw its ambassadors to the United States and Australia and cancel a defense meeting with Britain.

France continues to see Britain as the junior partner in the long-running "special relationship," years after former British Prime Minister Tony Blair was ridiculed for supporting George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq in March 2003, some say.

"The French are seeing this as quite strategic, part of a shift by America in particular coming on top of the Afghanistan humiliation, a shift of America away from really taking its European allies seriously and turning towards China ... and Britain following on, Britain being the poodle," said Peter Ricketts, a member of the House of Lords and former British ambassador to France.

For Biden, the alliance is focused on a pragmatic need to rise above differences in approach and style. Biden was angered at the time by Johnson's comments characterizing his former boss Barack Obama as being opposed to Britain exit from the European Union because he was "part Kenyan."

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