Christie can showcase diplomacy in trip to England
NEWARK, N.J. - After launching a political action committee this past week, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is heading to the United Kingdom today, where he'll meet with Prime Minister David Cameron.
The trip, his third overseas, comes as Christie weighs entering the crowded 2016 Republican presidential field and serves as an opportunity to build his foreign policy resume, prove he has the temperament for the world stage and showcase a personality his supporters say his would-be opponents lack.
Officially the trip is a trade mission to strengthen ties between New Jersey and the U.K. - the state's third-largest foreign trading partner, with $7 billion in goods exchanged each year.
"One of the main objectives of this trip is to focus on the opportunities that exist between the United Kingdom and New Jersey and our country as a whole," Christie told reporters in a conference call before departing. "There is no other country that has such a strong connection to ours in terms of history, economy and culture. And so we want to continue to make the most of that relationship."
Christie, who has taken flak for his love for the Dallas Cowboys football team, will begin his three-day trip with football of another sort - an Arsenal Football Club game today against Aston Villa with his wife, Mary Pat, who will accompany him on the trip.
Other stops on the governor's itinerary include:
- Meetings in Cambridge with representatives from the life sciences and pharmaceutical fields and a tour of pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca's research and development arm. He'll return to London to meet with U.S. Ambassador Matthew Barzun, Cameron and attend a dinner with some members of the prime ministers' Cabinet.
- A tour of Hope House, an addiction treatment center for women supported by the royal family. The visit is a gesture of thanks to Prince Harry, who spent a day touring areas devastated by Superstorm Sandy during a 2013 visit, officials said.
- A rehearsal of William Shakespeare's "Henry V" and a conversation with Rutgers University students studying classical acting abroad.
Christie's potential rivals also are logging international frequent flier miles, including Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, who recently returned from a 10-day European economic development mission, and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who is planning a trip to the U.K. a week after Christie's.
"A lot of foreign policy is the personal relationship between leaders, and to the extent that he's able to help these foreign leaders understand who he is and what makes him tick, I think that's a positive thing," said Lanhee Chen, a policy director for Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney's 2012 campaign.
Christie recently traveled to Mexico and Canada, where he delivered speeches about North American trade and the benefits of domestic energy production. But this trip appears to provide little opportunity for him to share his foreign policy views, which has earned him criticism in the past.