President Joe Biden met and hugged King Charles on Monday after turning down his coronation in May, and as he faces charges, he is anti-British.
The president received a royal salute at Windsor Castle ahead of climate talks on the eve of the NATO summit crisis in Lithuania.
A hands-on Biden, 80, grabbed the arm of 74-year-old Charles as they shook hands before walking to the stage for the playing of the Star Spangled Banner.
The tactile President also placed his hand on the King’s back as they made a round of Windsor Castle’s quadrangle to inspect the Welsh Guards.
Biden will spend just 24 hours in London, raising questions about why a full British state visit has not been scheduled.
He flew into a rage in May after deciding to skip Charles’s coronation and send First Lady Jill and granddaughter Finnegan.
President Joe Biden met and hugged King Charles on Monday after rejecting his coronation in May, and as he faces allegations he is anti-British
Biden grabbed Charles’s arm as they greeted each other in the grounds of Windsor Castle
The President also placed his hand on Charles’s back before making a tour of the Windsor Castle quadrangle to inspect the Welsh Guards.
Biden last had formal talks with Charles at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow in November 2021.
Earlier in his UK trip, Biden tried to quash claims that he is anti-British by drinking tea with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in the garden of 10 Downing Street.
The president said that relations between the US and Britain are “rock solid” and insisted that he and Sunak had spoken several times in recent months.
It follows a journey to Northern Ireland and Ireland where he was accused of snubs and anti-British mockery.
“It’s good to be back,” he said jokingly, “we only meet once a month.”
The British flag was clearly visible on the US President’s ‘Beast’ as it turned onto the famous street – in stark contrast to its absence when he visited Northern Ireland earlier this year. Biden and Sunak greeted each other with a warm handshake on the steps before starting their discussions.
But frustration is mounting that while it will be their fifth meeting in as many months, Biden is largely ignoring the UK’s views.
King Charles and Biden laugh over a photo in Windsor Castle’s Grand Corridor during their talks about climate change
The couple were surrounded by paintings as they walked through the royal residence
They shook hands before inspecting the Welsh Guards in the quadrangle after Marine One landed on the property
King Charles III and Biden inspect the guard of honor of the Prince of Wales’s Company of the Welsh Guard
A tactile Biden puts his hands on Charles’ back during their meeting at Windsor Castle on Monday
More focal points have emerged in recent days, with Biden pouring cold water on the idea of Ukraine joining NATO soon.
He has also put Sunak in an uncomfortable position by stating that the US will supply Kiev with cluster bombs – weapons the UK is determined to shun.
And the pair could have awkward exchanges over NATO’s next head, after Biden seemingly blocked Defense Secretary Ben Wallace’s ambitions and backed the EU’s Ursula von der Leyen for the top job.
British Conservative MP David Jones said involvement from DailyMail.com was useless if there was no ‘positive response’. “The prime minister should remind him which country is America’s strongest ally,” he added.
As the leaders sat down on rattan furniture in the Downing Street garden, Biden told Sunak he “could not meet a closer friend and greater ally.”
“Our relationship is rock solid,” he said.
Marine One is escorted to the site by a Metropolitan Police helicopter
Members of the Welsh Guards prepare for a guard of honor to be inspected by Biden and King Charles
The Welsh Guards arrive ahead of a meeting between King Charles and President Biden
Speaking in the garden of Downing Street on the eve of a cracking NATO summit in Lithuania, Joe Biden told the prime minister that the special relationship is ‘rock solid’
Biden did his best to refrain from any sign of rift in US-British relations as the White House tried to suppress the significance of his disapproval of King Charles’s coronation
Sunak said the pair would consider “how can we strengthen our cooperation, joint economic security for the benefit of our citizens.”
He added: “We stand as two of the strongest allies in that alliance and I know we want to do everything we can to strengthen Euro-Atlantic security.”
White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan had touted repeated contacts with Sunak aboard Air Force One en route to London — with a rare oversight where he brought up the sensitive subject of Charles’s coronation, which Biden skipped . Instead, he sent first lady Jill Biden.
“He will also have the opportunity to meet Prime Minister Sunak at number 10. This will actually be his first time at number 10 as president. He has, of course, been to the UK twice before – once for the G7 in Carbis Bay and once for the COP in Glasgow. And then, of course, a third time he was here for the – the coronation – or, sorry, for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth’s funeral,’ he said.
Biden would push for the current president of the European Commission to be in charge of the military alliance.
But British MPs have complained that he is “ad ***” after he was apparently angry that Britain failed to get its approval to train Ukrainian pilots for F-16 fighter jets.
Conservatives have warned that Ms von der Leyen was the ‘worst ever’ German defense minister before she became committee chair.
During her watch, Berlin troops notoriously trained with broomsticks on NATO exercises because they didn’t have enough rifles.
Biden told CNN in an interview broadcast as he began his journey that Ukraine was not “ready for membership” of NATO.
“I don’t think there is a consensus within NATO on whether or not to include Ukraine in the NATO family right now, in the middle of a war,” he said.
He noted that NATO members are using every inch of each other’s territory as war rages in Ukraine.
“When the war is going on, we are all at war,” he said.