As England Plays Croatia, Theresa May Is Stuck Between Trump and Erdogan
As England Plays Croatia, Theresa May Is Stuck Between Trump and Erdogan
(Bloomberg) -- Millions of Brits will be glued to their screens to see if England makes it to the World Cup final in Russia. Not Theresa May.
Instead, she’ll be sat between U.S. President Donald Trump and Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at a gala dinner for NATO leaders in Brussels -- getting hand-written notes passed to her by staff with the latest on the semi-final match against Croatia.
To make things even more uncomfortable, her Croatian counterpart will also be at the dinner -- but sat far away. President Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic tweeted a picture of her self giving Trump a soccer shirt with his name on the back. She also gave one to May, with a number 10 on the back.
The dinner started at 7:15 p.m. -- sharp -- in the neo-gothic cloister of the Art & History Museum with poor mobile phone reception. The official program promises the best of Belgian gastronomy by 2-Michelin-starred chef Sang Hoon Degeimbre.
May will only have got through the first course by the time the game began 8 p.m. -- and with England scoring within minutes she will have already been slipped a note, and a second one when Croatia drew even.
To contact the reporter on this story: Jessica Shankleman in London at jshankleman@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Flavia Krause-Jackson at fjackson@bloomberg.net;Alan Crawford at acrawford6@bloomberg.net
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