London: US President Joe Biden arrived in Britain on Sunday where he will meet King Charles III and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak before continuing to Vilnius for a NATO summit, then a final stop in new NATO member Finland. Air Force One touched down at Stansted Airport north of London late in the evening, an AFP journalist reported.
On Monday, he will meet 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. President Biden will also be meeting with Prime Minister Sunak at 10 Downing Street.
The main part of Joe Biden’s Europe trip will be the NATO summit in the Lithuanian capital Tuesday and Wednesday, where the Western allies will discuss helping Ukraine to oust Russian occupation forces. Ukraine is pressing for admission to the military alliance but President Biden said in an interview aired on Sunday with CNN that this cannot happen until the war is over. Bringing Ukraine in now would mean NATO is at war with Russia, Joe Biden said. Under Article 5, NATO is committed to defending any member that comes under attack.
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 hold in its arsenal and says will help Ukraine destroy heavily dug-in Russian forces. Joe 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. President Biden will be the first US president to visit Helsinki since Donald Trump went five years ago to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
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