Ahead of the Olympic Games in London, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney met on Thursday with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, starting the day with the United Kingdom’s most powerful leaders. The presumptive GOP nominee sought to send a message that he recognizes close bonds between the United States and its top ally, and to project an image of leadership. “We have a very special relationship between the United States and Great Britain,” Romney told NBC News in an interview in London on the first day of a weeklong trip overseas that will also land him in Poland and Israel. “It goes back to our very beginnings — cultural and historical.”
The former governor of Massachusetts is also set to meet with incumbent Prime Minister David Cameron later in the day on Thursday. “While I’m on foreign soil, I’m very careful not to be critical of my own government’s policies,” Romney said. “I would be even more remiss if I were to be critical of any other government’s policies. I will instead look forward to an exchange of ideas.”
