A small but significant moment over coffee at the British embassy in Washington this morning. British foreign secretary David Miliband was briefing British journalists about his talks with the secretary of state Condoleezza Rice.
He ran through the issues that had come up: Turkey, the suicide bomb in Pakistan, Kosovo, Afghanistan, the Middle East peace process and the Iranian nuclear impasse. What was surprising was how little Iraq figured in the talks.
Miliband remarked on it. He said that it had probably been the first time in recent years that Iraq had not been top of the agenda of a meeting between the US secretary of state and the British foreign minister. He suggested it was because of what he said was the improving security situation in Baghdad and southern Iraq.
The real reason is that British involvement is effectively over, with only a small British contingent holed up at Basra airport. For the US, it remains top of the foreign policy agenda.
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