U.S. President Joe Biden answers a matter during a joint press conference with Prime Minister of the UK Rishi Sunak within the East Room on the White House on June 8, 2023 in Washington, DC.
Drew Angerer | Getty Images
U.S. President Joe Biden will arrive in Britain on Sunday for a transient visit during which he’ll meet British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and discuss climate change issues with King Charles ahead of the upcoming NATO summit.
The White House said the trip was designed “to further strengthen the close relationship between our nations”.
The president will travel to Downing Street on Monday to carry a low-key meeting with Sunak, their fifth in as many months and only a month after the 2 agreed in Washington to an “Atlantic Declaration” and to work together on advanced technologies, clean energy and demanding minerals.
Sunak’s spokesperson said their discussions would likely include the upcoming NATO summit and Ukraine.
“As we face recent and unprecedented challenges to our physical and economic security, our alliances are more necessary than ever,” Sunak said in an announcement released by his office on Saturday.
“The UK is Europe’s leading NATO ally, we’re the US’ most significant trade, defence and diplomatic partner, and we’re on the forefront of providing Ukraine with the support they should succeed on the battlefield,” said Sunak, who studied at California’s Stanford University and owns a penthouse flat in Santa Monica.
Sunak has gone a way in repairing ties with Biden after the connection cooled under his predecessors Boris Johnson and Liz Truss on account of their tough stance over a post-Brexit cope with the European Union and Johnson’s closer ties to Donald Trump.
For Biden, the more high-profile a part of the trip shall be his meeting with King Charles at Windsor Castle to the west of London where the monarch’s late mother Queen Elizabeth hosted Barack Obama in 2016 and Trump in 2018.
The president and the king are on account of discuss climate issues, a subject on which Charles, 74, has campaigned and spoken out about for greater than five many years.
When the 2 men met on the COP26 U.N. climate summit in Scotland two years ago, Biden praised Charles’ leadership on the topic, telling him “We want you badly”.
“You might be very kind for saying that,” Charles replied.
Following the meeting, Biden and Sunak leave Britain for Lithuania where NATO leaders will gather for a key summit. Biden is then expected to travel to Helsinki for a gathering with Nordic leaders.
