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Joe Biden has described the UK-US relationship as “rock solid” ahead of talks in Downing Street with Rishi Sunak, but differences have emerged between the two sides ahead of this week’s Nato summit.
The US president’s decision to send cluster munitions to Kyiv is at odds with Britain’s opposition to their use, while Sunak is more positive than Biden over the prospects of Ukraine joining Nato.
However, the British prime minister and Biden will stress a common determination to carry on arming Ukraine in its war against Russia; the UK and US are the two biggest donors to Kyiv’s military operations.
Biden arrived at Stansted airport near London on Sunday night and will meet both Sunak and King Charles during his short visit before heading to the Nato summit in Vilnius later on Monday.
British officials privately admit that Biden’s main reason for stopping over in Britain is to meet the monarch at Windsor Castle, affording a photo opportunity traditionally beloved of US presidents.
Biden did not attend the king’s coronation this year — US presidents do not usually attend such events — and will discuss climate change issues with the monarch over tea.
Biden’s visit comes little more than a month after Sunak met him at the White House and is their fifth meeting in five months. “We covered most of the ground we needed to cover in Washington,” said one UK official.
However, the talks in Downing Street on Monday morning focused on Ukraine and were expected to cover what Biden called his “difficult” decision to send cluster munitions to Ukraine.
Britain is a signatory to an international convention banning the use of the weapons, which have been blamed for causing deaths to civilians even decades after conflicts have ended.
The convention “prohibits the production or use of cluster munitions and discourages their use”, Sunak said on Saturday. The US is not a signatory.
Meanwhile, the US and Germany are under intense pressure from other allies to show greater support for Ukraine’s eventual membership of Nato.
Washington and Berlin have backed a form of words for the summit’s concluding statement that does not fully endorse a “pathway” to Nato membership, let alone invite Kyiv to join once the war is over — as demanded by Ukraine’s staunchest supporters in eastern Europe.
Sunak and Biden were also expected to discuss the Northern Ireland peace process post-Brexit and the recent agreement to reform post-Brexit trading rules for the region, the so-called Windsor agreement.
Britain and the US are generally aligned on foreign policy and recently concluded the Aukus Pacific defence pact, which also included Australia.
Last week, Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, brushed off criticism that Biden had not attended King Charles’s coronation in May. “He had a call with the King and congratulated him,” she said.