LONDON(AP)-President Joe Biden is scheduled to stop in the UK to meet with King Charles III. He discusses environmental issues and talks about the Ukrainian war with Prime Minister Rishi Snak. While not a full state visit, the visit highlights the importance of the United States and Britain’s trans-Atlantic ‘special relationship’, especially in the face of challenges such as Brexit and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
President Biden will arrive in London on Sunday as part of a visit to the NATO summit in Lithuania. He is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Sunak at 10 Downing Street on Monday. Afterwards, he plans to head to Windsor Castle to meet King Charles. It will be his first meeting since Queen Elizabeth’s funeral in September.
The meeting between President Biden and Prime Minister Sunak will primarily focus on Ukraine. The two leaders will then attend a NATO conference in Vilnius, where the issue of Ukraine’s possible membership of the alliance will be discussed. NATO leaders announced in 2008 that Ukraine would eventually join, but no concrete roadmap was set despite the fervent appeals of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The United States and Britain are among the Western countries that strongly support Ukraine. The UK has taken a leading role in advocating for military engagement and has urged the Biden administration to take further action, including by providing tanks and supporting international efforts to supply F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine. I am asking you to take President Biden has been criticized by some allies, including Britain, for his decision to supply Ukraine with cluster bombs, which are banned under an international treaty signed by more than 120 countries, including Britain. Prime Minister Sunak said the UK is blocking the use of cluster munitions.
Despite some disagreements, the UK has refrained from expressing its dissatisfaction with the US’s lack of support for Secretary of Defense Ben Wallace’s appointment as NATO secretary. Instead, the term of current Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg was extended by another year.
Trans-Atlantic relations have faced strain in recent years due to Brexit, with President Biden particularly openly expressing concern over its impact on the peace process in Northern Ireland. A deal between the UK and the EU in February helped settle a dispute over trade rules in Northern Ireland.
The meeting between President Biden and Prime Minister Sunak will be the sixth since the British leader took office in October. Sunak recently visited Washington, where the two leaders pledged close economic cooperation in areas such as artificial intelligence, clean energy and important minerals.
The visit will give Prime Minister Sunak a respite from facing domestic challenges such as a sluggish economy and splits within the party. President Biden and Prime Minister Sunak will face an election verdict next year, and the deadline for calling state elections is the end of 2024. Britain’s inflation rate for the year to May was 8.7%, double that of the United States, putting considerable economic pressure on the public, and the ruling Conservative Party now trails Labor in polls.
For King Charles, the visit is an opportunity to raise awareness. He may not have the stardom of his late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, who met with 13 US presidents and made more than 100 state visits during his reign, but he’s a wild animal. He has built a reputation as an environmental activist who works to protect and protect nature. And we were fighting climate change long before these issues were widely publicized.
As a highly regarded figure in the field of green and climate energy, King Charles’ presence with President Biden can enhance the president’s image and strengthen his commitment to environmental issues. Although the British monarch does not exercise political power, his significant soft power stems from world leaders’ fascination with royal mysticism.
Overall, President Biden’s visit to the UK serves to strengthen transatlantic ties, underscore our shared commitment to Ukraine, and provide an opportunity to discuss important global issues such as the environment and climate change.
