oe Biden will meet the King and Rishi Sunak on a visit to London this month to “further strengthen the close relationship between our nations,” the White House has confirmed.
It will mark the King’s first meeting with Mr Biden since his coronation, which the US president did not attend, with First Lady Jill Biden taking his place.
Mr Biden will visit the UK on July 9 before heading off to the Nato summit in Lithuania and ending in Finland on July 13.
A visit to the UK had long been expected and comes after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak visited Washington last month for talks.
Confirming the visit, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said: “President Biden will first travel to London, United Kingdom for engagements with King Charles III and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to further strengthen the close relationship between our nations.”
Buckingham Palace said the King would meet with Mr Biden at Windsor Castle on July 10.
Mr Biden made a brief trip to Northern Ireland in April to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, meeting the Prime Minister for brief talks in Belfast.
Next week’s short trip by Mr Biden comes after the US and the UK announced a new partnership, the ‘Atlantic Declaration’, to bolster economic security.
Announced during Mr Sunak’s visit to the White House, it included commitments on easing trade barriers, closer defence industry ties and a data protection deal.
While both sides used that Washington visit to hail the strength of US-UK ties, Mr Biden has not been afraid of occasionally criticising London.
Mr Biden in May claimed that he visited the island of Ireland earlier this year to ensure the “Brits didn’t screw around”, amid ongoing US concern about the impact of Brexit on the peace process.
During that visit, the President told the Irish parliament that he believed the UK should be working more closely with the administration in Dublin to support Northern Ireland.
Mr Sunak will also be attending the Nato summit in Vilnius, which is seen as a crunch summit at which a compromise on Ukraine’s demand for membership of the alliance is expected to be hammered out.
.jpg?width=1200&auto=webp&quality=75 "Disused public toilets in West Norwood and Isle of Dogs at auction for over £100k")
