CNN
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President Joe Biden arrived in London late Saturday for a two-day visit honoring Queen Elizabeth II, the long-reigning monarch he says “defined an era.”
Biden is becoming a member of leaders from dozens of different nations to pay their respects to the late sovereign, whom he met final yr and declared afterward reminded him of his personal mom.
On Sunday afternoon, the President and first woman Jill Biden can pay their respects to the Queen, whose coffin has been mendacity in state at Westminster Hall, earlier than signing a e book of condolence and attending a reception for visiting leaders hosted by Britain’s new king, Charles III.
For Biden, it’s a second to mirror on a monarch who embodied a dedication to public service and whose life charted the main historic occasions of the final 100 years.
Biden and the Queen first met in 1982, when as a younger senator, Biden’s personal Irish American mom instructed him: “Don’t you bow down to her.”
He didn’t bow down then, or when he met the Queen as President final yr whereas attending a Group of seven summit in England. But his respect for a lady whose fidelity on the world stage over the final century was unparalleled has been plain.
“She was a great lady. We’re so delighted we got to meet her,” Biden mentioned on the day that she died.
The Queen’s shock choice final yr to journey to the Cornish coast to fulfill world leaders at the G7 summit was a sign of her need to stay engaged in world affairs.
Later that week, when she hosted Biden and first woman Jill Biden for tea at Windsor Castle, she inquired about two authoritarian leaders, Presidents Xi Jinping of China and Vladimir Putin of Russia, the President informed reporters afterward.
“She had such curiosity. She wanted to know all about American politics, what was happening. So, she put us at ease,” Jill Biden mentioned not too long ago in an interview with NBC.
At Sunday night’s reception, Biden will see Charles for the first time since he turned King. The two males have met beforehand and spoke final week by cellphone.
As Prince of Wales, Charles was a passionate campaigner for sure points Biden has additionally championed, together with combating local weather change. It stays to be seen how concerned the new King can be on these points going ahead.
Relatively shut in age – Charles is 73, Biden is 79 – the two males have a shared expertise of being in the public eye for many years earlier than assuming their present roles as heads of state.
On his name with the King, Biden “conveyed the great admiration of the American people for the Queen, whose dignity and constancy deepened the enduring friendship and special relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom,” the White House mentioned. “President Biden conveyed his wish to continue a close relationship with the King.”
Security in the British capital is at its highest stage in reminiscence as Biden and dozens of different world leaders convene to recollect the late Queen, who met 13 sitting US Presidents during her reign.
White House aides have declined to supply particular safety particulars for the President’s visit however say they’re working nicely with their British counterparts to make sure the calls for of presidential safety are met.
Plans for the Queen’s funeral have been in place for years, permitting US advisers larger perception into exactly what’s going to occur over the coming days as they make safety preparations. The White House mentioned it acquired an invite just for the President and first woman, making for a slimmed-down American footprint.
Biden traveled along with his nationwide safety adviser, communications director and different private aides aboard Air Force One to London.
When studies emerged final week that world leaders could be required to journey on a bus to the funeral, US officers had been skeptical and shot down the suggestion Biden that will journey to Westminster Abbey in a coach.
In 2018, when different world leaders traveled collectively in a bus to a World War I memorial in Paris, then-US President Donald Trump traveled individually in his personal car. The White House defined at the time that the separate journey was “due to security protocols.”
The Queen’s dying got here at a second of financial and political turmoil for the United Kingdom. A brand new prime minister, Liz Truss, entered workplace after months of uncertainty following the choice of her predecessor, Boris Johnson, to step down.
Truss invited a number of visiting world leaders to fulfill individually at 10 Downing Street this weekend. In the position for less than a bit of greater than per week, it is going to be Truss’ first time assembly nose to nose with a lot of her international counterparts.
While her workplace initially mentioned Biden could be amongst the leaders visiting Downing Street, it was later introduced that Truss and the President would meet for formal bilateral talks on Wednesday on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
A bunch of points are presently testing the US-UK “special relationship,” which has been heralded repeatedly in the days since the Queen’s death.
It was solely two days after Truss traveled to Balmoral Castle in Scotland to formally settle for the Queen’s appointment as prime minister that the long-reigning monarch handed away. Since then, the nation has been in a proper interval of mourning.
Truss inherited a deep financial disaster, fueled by excessive inflation and hovering vitality prices, that has led to fears the UK may quickly enter a chronic recession. The challenges have been aggravated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has triggered volatility in oil and gasoline markets.
While few in the Biden administration shed tears at Johnson’s resignation– Biden as soon as described him as the “physical and emotional clone” of Trump – the US and the UK had been deeply aligned in their method to Russia beneath his management.
White House officers count on that cooperation will proceed beneath Truss, at the same time as she comes beneath strain to ease financial pressures at house.
Less sure, nonetheless, is whether or not Truss’s hard-line method to Brexit will bitter relations with Biden. The President has taken a private curiosity in the explicit challenge of the Northern Ireland Protocol, a post-Brexit association that requires additional checks on items transferring between Northern Ireland and the remainder of the UK.
The guidelines had been designed to maintain the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland open and keep away from a return to sectarian violence. But Truss has moved to rewrite these guidelines, inflicting deep anxiousness in each Brussels and Washington.
Biden, who makes frequent references to his Irish ancestry, has made his views clear on the challenge, despite the fact that it doesn’t immediately contain the United States. Congressional Democrats have equally expressed concern over any steps that would reignite the Northern Ireland battle.
In their first cellphone name as counterparts earlier this month, Biden raised the matter with Truss, in accordance with the White House. A US readout of their dialog mentioned they mentioned a “shared commitment to protecting the gains of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement and the importance of reaching a negotiated agreement with the European Union on the Northern Ireland Protocol.”
