The obsession of all the tenants of Downing Street with the “special relationship” between London and Washington has increased since Brexit left the British a little more alone in the world. The arrival in the United Kingdom of President Joe Biden, who will land this Sunday at Stansted airport and will meet with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and King Charles III throughout Monday. it’s more than a stopover on his European tour, it’s less than an official visit. Crossing the Atlantic with the war in Ukraine on his mind, Biden is ready to defend his controversial decision to arm Kiev with cluster bombs. In search of unity among the allies, he has attended the NATO summit in Vilnius (Lithuania) since Tuesday, but laid the foundations before leaving Washington. “I don’t think Ukraine is ready to join NATO,” he said.
Biden arrives in London amid a heated debate among NATO allies over how to frame Ukraine’s membership pledge in the Vilnius Summit final declaration. Washington and Berlin opt for a vague formulation that makes it clear that there will be no automatisms after the end of the war. Sunak wants stronger language than the 2008 Bucharest Summit, to which Kiev was invited, which clearly emphasized that Ukraine has its place in NATO and that only the allies and the country concerned have the right to decide on join; in clear allusion to Russia. That places the Briton halfway between the more conservative positions of Biden and those of the eastern countries, who want to suspend the so-called Membership Action Plan, which establishes the necessary conditions for Ukraine to join the alliance, they say. Maria R. Sahuquillo from Vilnius.
Negotiations on the final document continue this Sunday without agreement and it is likely that the final specification will be decided at the summit that begins on Tuesday, allied sources say. A meeting that will deepen diplomatic ties with kyiv through the establishment of a NATO-Ukraine Council that will allow the Russian-occupied country to sit at the table in many allied meetings. Sunak and Biden are also expected to discuss the model of security commitments that a group of countries, including his own and also Germany, France or Canada, can offer Ukraine in the form of a political pact guaranteeing that they will remain Western weapons. gain flow.
“I don’t think there is unanimity on whether or not Ukraine should be included in the NATO family now that it’s in the middle of the war,” Biden admitted to CNN in an interview broadcast on Sunday. The US president considers it “premature” to think about his accession. On the one hand, it is stated that Ukraine “is not ready” because it does not meet the requirements in terms of democratization, organization of its armed forces and others.
Furthermore, involving Ukraine in the conflict would effectively mean a declaration of war on Russia. “If the war continues [y Ucrania entra en la OTAN], then we would all be at war. “If that were the case, we would be at war with Russia,” he told CNN. The United States should provide Ukraine, like Israel, with long-term security aid, “the ability to defend itself,” Biden said.
London is a flying target. The pause will certainly serve to turn an ally into an accomplice after the awkward years of the Boris Johnson era and his handling of Northern Ireland that never pleased the US government. “As we face new and unforeseen challenges to our physical and economic security, our alliances are more important than ever,” Sunak said in a statement issued hours before Biden’s arrival. “Britain is the key NATO ally in Europe and the key trade, diplomatic and defense partner of the United States,” he said.
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cluster bombs
The first test of resistance to this cemented friendship will come with the issuance of cluster bombs. A total of 123 countries have signed a convention that prohibits the use of a weapon that is not discriminatory in its effects and profoundly harmful to civilians. The British prime minister has tried to distance himself from Biden’s decision without increasing tension: “The United Kingdom is a signatory to this convention,” Sunak recalled on Saturday. “We will continue to help Ukraine against the illegal and unprovoked invasion of Russia, but we will do so by supplying main battle tanks and long-range missiles,” he said.
Other allied governments such as the Spanish and Canadian governments have clearly expressed their opposition to sending cluster bombs to kyiv. Biden justified his decision with the fact that the Ukrainian armed forces suffer from a lack of ammunition. “It was a very difficult decision for me. And by the way, I discussed it with our allies,” he told CNN on Friday.
Sunak will maintain that the UK is the country, after the US, which individually – EU aid to Ukraine as a whole is far greater – has done the most to increase Kiev’s weapons power.
Since the current prime minister took over the UK government last October, he has already held six bilateral meetings with the US president. Sunak’s efforts to rebuild relations with Brussels and, above all, to resolve the conflict over the Northern Ireland Protocol found the go-ahead in Washington. The Biden administration has criticized more than once the bellicose tone Johnson used during his tenure on an issue, namely Northern Ireland’s leadership in the post-Brexit era, which particularly concerned the American leader with Irish family descent.
After Vilnius, Biden will travel to Helsinki to greet Finland’s decision to join the Atlantic Alliance after decades of neutrality. The last US president to set foot in Helsinki was Donald Trump five years ago, albeit under very different circumstances. He did it to meet Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Both appeared in a peculiar press conference in which Trump was determined to deny Russian interference in the 2016 elections that brought him to power, while Putin openly admitted that he wanted his victory and gave instructions to help him.
Five years later, Finland, a traditionally neutral country, is a NATO member after the Russian attack on Ukraine. However, the visit will serve as a reminder that another country with similar conditions, Sweden, today faces a veto on its accession by Turkey and Hungary. Stockholm expressed strong criticism of both countries. He pointed to the lack of respect for human rights by the Turkish authorities and the erosion of the rule of law by the Hungarian government of Viktor Orbán.
Biden received Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson at the White House last week and made it clear that he supports Sweden’s rapid entry into the alliance. On Sunday, Biden spoke with Turkish President Recep Tayıp Erdoğan about the summit and, according to the White House, Biden “has expressed his desire to welcome Sweden into NATO as soon as possible.”
The meeting with Carlos III
For political and sentimental reasons, it’s hard for an American president to get too excited about the splendor of the British monarchy. Biden was no exception. At the coronation ceremony of Carlos III. he did not appear on May 6, which was attended by first lady Jill Biden. But she highlights the connection that most unites her to the British king, who will host him at Buckingham Palace this Monday: the fight against climate change.
The two heads of state met in person two years ago during COP-26 in Glasgow, Scotland. “We need you very much” in this battle, the American leader told Charles of England, then Prince of Wales and heir to the British throne.
As Buckingham Palace and the White House, Biden and Carlos III expected. discuss potential additional funding channels that need to be found to address the greatest global challenge of the 21st century. Paradoxically, at least for the gallery, Johnson showed more interest in the challenge than Sunak. The incumbent Prime Minister was recently criticized by Zac Goldsmith, the environmental politician who chaired the Secretary of State for Climate, Energy and the Environment. Goldsmith tendered his resignation in late June after accusing Sunak of total disinterest: “This administration’s apathy in the face of the greatest challenge we face has made my role untenable.” [en este Gobierno]Goldsmith proclaimed in his suicide note.
Elizabeth II, mother of Charles III, met with 13 US presidents during her 70-year reign. For Carlos III, 74, meeting Biden, 80, will be his first as king.
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2023-07-09 19:57:23
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