The White House is pressed to “commence discussions with the Government of the United Kingdom, at their request” to maintain the current bilateral trade relationship. Or, should that not be possible upon a British exit of the European Union, for America to develop a new free trade agreement between the two countries.

“The United States and the United Kingdom have a special relationship grounded in the rule of law, democratic principles, a common language, and a strong commitment to peace and security,” the resolution says.

Three of its four pages list the two countries’ historic ties. It cites how Franklin Roosevelt, the US president, and Winston Churchill, the prime minister, “defined American and British war aims and laid the foundation for a post-war international system founded on free trade and freedom of the seas”.

It talks of the two nations standing side by side through two world wars, the Korean war, the Cold War, the Gulf war, “and the global war on terror with Americans and Britons fighting and dying together to defend our common interests and principles”.