Biden shows unity with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak amid criticism of cluster bombs

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The US President met the UK Prime Minister and the King in London ahead of the vital NATO summit.

US President Joe Biden made an offer of unity with London on Monday during a brief visit to the United Kingdom.

He met Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and then the king, ahead of a major NATO summit in Lithuania.

Charles III welcomed Biden to Windsor Castle for tea and a discussion on the environment.

According to the US presidency, the two presidents had to talk mainly about the climate, a topic that the king has long adhered to and for which the US president has “great respect”.

This would be their first meeting since the coronation of Charles III.

Before heading to Windsor, Biden spent about 40 minutes in Downing Street, where he was greeted down the stairs by Rishi Sunak before tea in the gardens.

The US President praised the “strong” relationship between the two countries. “I couldn’t meet a closer friend and greater ally,” he said.

Rishi Sunak boasted that the US and UK are “two strongest allies” within NATO, and his meeting with Biden was his sixth.

The two leaders agreed on the need to “strengthen” NATO and “continue to support Ukraine” so that it can achieve a “just and lasting peace” in the face of a Russian invasion, according to the Downing Street meeting minutes.

They also hoped that Sweden could quickly and fully join NATO.

However, this visit comes two days after the controversial US decision to supply Ukraine with cluster munitions, which are banned in many NATO countries.

After some condemnations from European allies, Rishi Sunak on Saturday indicated that the UK is a signatory to international agreements banning the production and use of these weapons.

Aboard Air Force One before Biden arrived in London, White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan narrowed the difference in position between Washington and London to “legal.”

He said that the United Kingdom “is a signatory to the Oslo Accords, and the United States is not.”

But he insisted that Biden and Sunak are “on the same page strategically on Ukraine,” stressing the pair’s good relationship.

Biden’s brief pause in the UK comes on the eve of a major NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, where Ukraine hopes to receive new promises of arms deliveries.

According to a Western official, the alliance would remove a major hurdle in Kiev’s accession process.

But the Democratic president on Sunday dashed Ukraine’s hopes of a quick accession. “I don’t think they are ready to join NATO,” he said in an interview on CNN.

After London and Vilnius, Joe Biden will travel to Finland to meet with Nordic leaders.

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