AGI – The US president, Joe Biden, is in Downing Street, in London, in conversation with the British premier, Rishi Sunak. London is the first stop on Biden’s European tour which will culminate tomorrow and Wednesday with the NATO summit in Vilnius.
Biden arrived in Downing Street in the presidential car, dubbed The Beast; he shook Sunak’s hand and posed for pictures. According to the White House, there will be “bilateral and global issues” on the agenda with the British premier. The US president has declared that relations between Washington and London are “solid as a rock”.
Biden will also meet King Charles III before traveling to the NATO summit in Lithuania.
Biden this weekend clarified his disagreement with sending cluster bombs to Ukraine. Sunak told reporters on Saturday that his country “discourages” the use of cluster munitions, being one of 123 signatory states to the convention that bans them, although it is not known whether the issue will be on the agenda of the two leaders .
© Albero IRRAM / PISCINA / AFP
Rishi Sunak
Sunak and Biden, who have strongly agreed on the importance of arming Ukrainian troops after the Russian invasion, will coordinate their positions ahead of the Vilnius summit. Subsequently, Charles III will host Biden at Windsor Castle, in west London, for tea together, during which they will discuss the climate crisis and efforts to fight it. Prior to their meeting and reunion with Climate Finance Mobilization Photo attendees, Biden will receive the royal salute and hear the US anthem played by the Welsh Guards.
Re Carlo III
Sweden’s accession to NATO
The focus is on the meeting that Biden will have in Vilnius with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan who he will have to convince to lift the veto on Sweden’s accession to NATO. Last night the American president spoke with the Turkish leader, as the White House said: “It was a 45-minute conversation and they talked about a number of issues related to the upcoming summit, including the war in Ukraine (. ..) They also talked about Sweden joining and agreed to have the opportunity to sit down together in Vilnius,” White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters.
In a statement, the White House itself explained that in the phone call the two leaders expressed their common commitment to continue to support Ukraine and reviewed their efforts to strengthen bilateral ties. “President Biden has also expressed his desire to welcome Sweden into NATO as soon as possible,” he read. Earlier last week, Biden received Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson at the White House to signal Washington’s full support for the Nordic country to join NATO.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine, which began in February 2022, has pushed Finland and Sweden to change their pposition of neutrality which has lasted for three decades and to apply for NATO membership. While Finland became the 31st member last April, Sweden’s application for membership was blocked by Turkey and Hungary.
Turkey accuses Sweden of taking too permissive a position against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a guerrilla group that launched an armed struggle against the Turkish state in 1984 to demand greater autonomy for the Kurds and which is considered a terrorist group by Turkey, Sweden, the European Union and the United States.
2023-07-10 10:09:00
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