President Joe Biden left yesterday for Britain to meet with King Charles III before continuing to Vilnius for a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) summit, then a final stop in new Nato member Finland.The White House said the trip to the UK was designed "to further strengthen the close relationship between our nations".Biden departed Dover Air Force Base in Delaware and was due to arrive in key US ally Britain later in the day.Today he meets with the British monarch at Windsor Castle, one of the royal residences, for the first time since Charles III’s coronation. The US president did not attend the ceremony, sending First Lady Jill Biden instead.Their talks are expected to focus on environmental issues, the White House said.When the two men met at the COP26 United Nations climate summit in Scotland two years ago, Biden praised Charles’ leadership on the subject, telling him: "We need you badly.""You are very kind for saying that," Charles replied.Biden met Charles at a reception during a visit for the funeral of Queen Elizabeth last year, but in keeping with longstanding practice of US presidents he did not attend the king’s coronation in May.US special climate envoy John Kerry told the BBC he had been invited to brief the king and Biden about a climate finance conference that he was due to host with the British energy minister, Grant Shapps, today.Biden will also be meeting with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at 10 Downing Street.Sunak’s spokesperson said their discussions would likely include the upcoming Nato summit and Ukraine."As we face new and unprecedented challenges to our physical and economic security, our alliances are more important than ever," Sunak said in a statement released by his office on Saturday."The UK is Europe’s leading Nato ally, we are the United States’ most important trade, defence and diplomatic partner, and we are at the forefront of providing Ukraine with the support they need to succeed on the battlefield," said Sunak, who studied at California’s Stanford University and owns a penthouse flat in Santa Monica.Sunak has gone some way in repairing ties with Biden after the relationship cooled under his predecessors Boris Johnson and Liz Truss due to their tough stance over a post-Brexit deal with the European Union and Johnson’s closer ties to Donald Trump.The main part of Biden’s Europe trip will be the Nato summit in the Lithuanian capital tomorrow and on Wednesday, where the Western allies will discuss helping Ukraine to oust Russian occupation forces.Ukraine is pressing for admission to the military alliance but Biden said in an interview aired yesterday with CNN that this cannot happen until the war is over.Bringing Ukraine in now would mean Nato is at war with Russia, Biden said.Under its Article 5, Nato is committed to defending any member that comes under attack."It’s a commitment that we’ve all made no matter what. If the war is going on, then we’re all in war. We’re at war with Russia, if that were the case," Biden said.Biden hopes to use the summit to pressure Turkiye into dropping opposition to Sweden’s all-but-cleared Nato membership bid.Entry requires unanimous consent from all the other members.In the interview with CNN, Biden also suggested that he is eyeing the idea of supplying Turkiye and Greece with new or upgraded US-made fighter aircraft as an enticement for Turkiye to let Sweden join Nato."And so, what I’m trying to, quite frankly, put together is a little bit of a consortium here where we’re strengthening Nato in terms of the military capacity of both Greece as well as Turkiye and allow Sweden to come in," Biden said. "But it’s in play. It’s not done."While in Vilnius, Biden will also deliver a major foreign policy speech at the city’s university.His trip comes in the wake of a controversial decision to supply Ukraine with cluster munitions, which most Nato member countries have banned but which the United States continues to use and says will help Ukraine destroy heavily dug-in Russian forces.Biden’s final stop before returning to Washington on Thursday will be Finland, which ended its historic neutrality to enter Nato in response to the Russian attack on Ukraine.Biden will be the first US president to visit Helsinki since Trump went five years ago to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin.
July 10, 2023 | 12:09 AM