President Joe Biden is set to receive a frosty reception in London after several recent moves have angered the British government.
Biden is set to begin his European trip, centered on the NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, with his first stop being the United Kingdom, where he will meet with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and King Charles III. Despite assurances that the "special relationship" between the United States and the U.K. remains in effect, outrage from the Tory government over recent moves from Biden could complicate his visit.
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“President Biden has a long track record of knifing Britain in the back," conservative commentator Nile Gardiner wrote in the Telegraph in a column titled "Biden wants nothing less than Britain’s total humiliation."
"He mercilessly sank a major trade deal between the United States and the United Kingdom, insultingly refused to attend the Coronation of King Charles III, and helped torpedo the candidacy of British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace to succeed Jens Stoltenberg as NATO secretary general,” he wrote, outlining some of the perceived slights that have caused a rift in relations.
Gardiner accused Biden of pursuing a closer relationship with Germany, France, and the European Union at the expense of the U.K., something he contrasted with former President Donald Trump's more favorable stance toward the country's closest ally.
"Brexit-hating Biden’s foolhardy stance should come as no surprise. He is deeply Eurofederalist in outlook, with a long track record of currying favour with Brussels, Paris and Berlin," he wrote. "Under his presidency, the White House has grown noticeably closer to the European Union, Germany and France, while downgrading the 'special relationship' with the United Kingdom, in stark contrast to the far more Eurosceptic approach taken by the previous Trump administration."
He also wrote that in backing European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to become the next head of NATO, Biden is "putting up two fingers to America’s closest friend and ally Great Britain, while kowtowing to the EU."
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One factor that could help warm Biden's reception is his relationship with King Charles, Karen Pierce, the British ambassador to the U.S., told Politico. While Biden declined to attend the king's coronation, the two figures enjoy a previous relationship. Biden will likely hope to seize on this previous relationship in his first meeting with Charles since his coronation.
“It will be the first time the president and the king have met since the king became king," Pierce said. "But of course they know each other really well. They've been in touch with each other over the years, mainly about climate change and how to tackle that. … They've seen each other reasonably recently, but this will be an opportunity for them to explore together other aspects of how best to tackle climate change.”