Joe Biden and Rishi Sunak meet at Downing St amid indicators of pressure in US-UK ties
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ishi Sunak welcomed Joe Biden to No 10 on Monday because the West was scrambling to agree a stance on Ukraine becoming a member of Nato.
The US president and Prime Minister placed on a present of unity, to spotlight Vladimir Putin’s “spectacular miscalculation” over the warfare, forward of a two-day Nato summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, beginning on Tuesday.
Mr Biden insisted that the UK-US relationship is “rock solid” initially of his Downing Street talks. He was warmly greeted by Mr Sunak, having arrived in his “Beast” car in a high-security convoy at 10.35am.
But their heat phrases couldn’t conceal frictions within the US-UK relationship below the Biden administration, together with over the pace of Ukraine turning into a Nato member, supplying it with cluster munitions and Washington not supporting Defence Secretary Ben Wallace to be the army alliance’s subsequent secretary basic, in addition to on Brexit.
Mr Biden was additionally on account of meet the King on Monday, having missed his Coronation in May, which was being seen as the principle focus of the president’s UK go to. At Windsor Castle, the 80-year-old president and the 74-year-old King have been set to debate find out how to assist to spice up personal funding to fight local weather change, a menace each say is existential.
“The president has huge respect for the King’s commitment on the climate issue in particular. He has been a clarion voice on this issue,” White House nationwide safety adviser Jake Sullivan advised reporters.
Rishi Sunak meets Joe Biden at 10 Downing Street | tenth July 2023
On Ukraine, Washington seems to be nearer to Berlin than London on the tempo for Kyiv to hitch Nato, with the UK seeming to assist a extra speedy path. Britain, in contrast to the US, has made clear it won’t be supplying Ukraine with cluster munitions.
Justice Secretary Alex Chalk stated Britain and different allies could be “heading to Vilnius showing a very united front to Putin”. Emphasising that the Russian president had under-estimated the West’s resolve to assist Ukraine in the long run, he advised GB News: “Putin made a spectacular miscalculation as well as of course doing something which is truly heinous and appalling.”
US secretary of state Antony Blinken and Ukraine’s international minister Dmytro Kuleba stated final night time that that they had mentioned the Nato summit and Kyiv’s counter-offensive. Mr Kuleba tweeted: “With 48 hours left, we are working to make its final decisions a win for all: Ukraine, Nato, and global security.” In an interview yesterday, Mr Biden advised CNN: “We have to lay out a rational path for Ukraine to be able to qualify to be able to get into Nato. But I think it’s premature to say, to call for a vote, you know, in now, because there’s other qualifications that need to be met.”
Britain’s Foreign Secretary James Cleverly has struck a distinct tone, voicing assist for fast-tracking Ukraine becoming a member of Nato, even when this doesn’t occur whereas the warfare is ongoing. Tensions have additionally been uncovered between the US and UK after Mr Biden stated he flew to Belfast in April to ensure “the Brits didn’t screw around” over the Good Friday Agreement, on its twenty fifth anniversary, in a post-Brexit row over Northern Ireland’s buying and selling preparations.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar stated her nation’s troops have been “consolidating gains” after seizing again greater than 74 sq. miles of territory from Putin’s military.