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Trump earlier this month canceled a trip to London to open the
new embassy, saying he did not want to endorse a bad deal agreed
by the Obama administration to sell the old one for "peanuts".
Tillerson was greeted by U.S. Ambassador Woody Johnson as
workmen finished planting shrubs in the grounds of the new
embassy. America's top diplomat then met some of the marines who
are stationed at the embassy.
"The embassy actually, is gonna really work," U.S. Ambassador
Johnson said ahead of Tillerson's arrival.
Asked when there would be a ribbon cutting ceremony, Ambassador
Johnson said: "At some point we're going to do it, but there's
no urgency to that. We'll do it when the time is right."
The decision to move the U.S. Embassy from its current Grosvenor
Square location in the exclusive Mayfair area of London and to a
site on the south bank of the Thames was agreed in 2008 under
the presidency of George W. Bush.
The American flag was this month removed from Grosvenor Square
where the U.S. embassy has been based since 1938 with the area
known as "Little America" during World War Two, when the square
also housed the military headquarters of General Dwight D.
Eisenhower.
The new embassy is a veritable fortress set back at least 100
feet (30 meters) from surrounding buildings - mostly
newly-erected high-rise residential blocks - and incorporating
living quarters for U.S. Marines permanently stationed inside.
The $1 billion construction was funded by the sale of other
properties in London.
(Reporting by William James; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)
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