Joe Biden is meeting Prime Minister Rishi Sunak for talks on Ukraine during a brief visit to the UK on Monday, after allies questioned the US decision to send cluster bombs to support Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
“Our relationship is rock solid,” the US president said as he met Sunak in Downing Street. “Couldn’t be meeting with a closer friend and a greater ally. We’ve got a lot to talk about.”
Biden is holding talks with the British premier before traveling to Lithuania for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s summit, which starts Tuesday. Amanda Sloat, US National Security Council senior director for Europe, told reporters that Biden will “compare notes” with Sunak on their support for Ukraine and on its counter-offensive against Russia.
More than 100 countries have agreed to ban the use of cluster munitions, in part because of the danger to civilians from unexploded bomblets. That includes many of NATO’s 31 member countries. While the UK adheres to the ban, the US says the bombs are needed because Ukraine’s weapon stocks are dwindling.
“You can feel the allies are all very uncomfortable with this,” Peter Ricketts, who served as the UK’s first national security adviser, told Sky News on Sunday. “It is a hard choice of the kind that countries have to make in wartime. I am uncomfortable with it, yes I wish it wasn’t being done, but I think we can understand why they are doing it.”
Italy, Spain, Germany and the UK are among the NATO members raising objections or making it clear they won’t follow the US’s lead.
Biden and Sunak won’t present a “significant joint statement” as they did when the British premier visited the White House in June, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters Sunday. Instead, they’ll be “picking up an ongoing conversation,” he said.
“This relationship between our two countries and our two peoples transcends whoever’s in either office or whatever’s happening in the politics of either country,” Sullivan said.
Biden and Sunak plan to discuss the “Atlantic Declaration,” a potential trade pact over critical materials like cobalt, graphite and nickel that would help UK automakers qualify for electric-vehicle subsidies, according to the prime minister’s office.
They may also discuss brokering a deal with Turkey, which has so far blocked Sweden from joining NATO. Biden may also bring up post-Brexit arrangements for Northern Ireland, in which he takes a keen interest.
On cluster munitions, Sunak said Saturday that the UK has signed the international convention against the production and use of the weapons “and discourages their use.” The UK will “continue to do our part to support Ukraine” against the Russian invasion, he told reporters.
Biden will also meet with King Charles III at Windsor Castle for the first time since the monarch’s coronation.
Biden’s climate envoy, John Kerry, and UK Energy Security and Net Zero Secretary Grant Shapps will meet financiers and philanthropists at the Climate Finance Mobilization Forum in Windsor on Monday, aimed at driving private investment in tackling climate change. The King and Biden will talk with participants following the discussions.
“Today is about uniting with our US allies and key enablers, using this world-leading expertise for the benefit of not just our own economies but those that will be most affected by climate change impacts,” Shapps said in an email.
--With assistance from Gregory Korte, Justin Sink, Jennifer Jacobs and Stuart Biggs.
(Updates with Biden comment in second paragraph.)