Joe Biden will meet King Charles for the first time since the coronation, in a fleeting UK visit that will be used by Rishi Sunak and the US president as a “pre-meeting” ahead of joint efforts at this week’s Nato summit.
Joe Biden is set to meet King Charles during a brief visit to the UK, serving as a preliminary meeting ahead of the Nato summit. The meeting between Biden and UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak will be their sixth since Sunak assumed office. However, the visit has been overshadowed by Biden’s decision to send cluster munitions to Ukraine, a move criticized by 100 countries, including the UK. Sunak is expected to downplay this difference as the UK seeks to repair strained relations with the US.
Climate issues will be discussed in a meeting between Biden and the king, aiming to dispel allegations that the president snubbed Britain by not attending the coronation. The visit holds advantages for both Biden and Sunak, particularly in terms of US public interest in the royals and UK credibility in defense and security. It also comes at an opportune time for Sunak, allowing him to be seen as a world leader before the Nato summit. Polling suggests that British public trust in the US has been affected by Brexit and the Trump presidency.
However, collaboration on intelligence and security remains a strong foundation for the UK-US relationship. Tobias Ellwood, chair of the defense select committee, welcomes the improved relationship with Sunak and attributes it to the UK’s earlier challenges with the Northern Ireland protocol. The article concludes with a plea for support for The Guardian’s independent journalism.
However brief – Airforce 1 is scheduled to have wheels up in time to arrive in Vilnius on Monday evening – the visit has pluses for Biden and Sunak, and comes at a particularly welcome time for the latter, note observers such as Sir Kim Darroch, British ambassador to the US from 2016 to 2019.
“There is still a fascination on the part of the American public with the royals, so that image will be useful to Biden, but also the one area where the UK continues to have credibility with Washington is on defence and security so he will be looking to ensure Sunak will be a supporter and enabler of him at the Nato summit,” he said.
“For Sunak, who has had a nightmare few weeks and faces some difficult political tests in the form of several byelections, it will an opportunity for him to be seen as a world leader ahead of a summit where some quite big decisions are coming up including on the issue of Ukraine’s application to join.”
