Air Force One landed just before 9 p.m. Swedish time at Mildenhall Air Force Base in Great Britain. In the evening, Joe and his wife Jill Biden met with the American military families stationed there – before the official program began outside St Ives in Cornwall in southwest England.
There, in a hotel complex near the rolling beaches, the leaders of the G7 nations will gather for a summit this weekend. But already on Thursday, Biden held his own meeting with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
There is little doubt about that What will the message be during the trip: After four years of Rep. Donald Trump’s isolationist policies, the United States is back on the world stage. In addition to the pandemic and vaccine challenges facing the world, the United States and other democracies must show a united front against Russia and China.
“The issue is critical of our time,” the president said in an article in the Washington Post before the trip.
“Are the alliances and democratic institutions that have shaped so much of the last century able to deal with the threats and enemies of our time? I think the answer is yes. And this week in Europe, we have a chance to prove it.”
Russia is a certain topic of conversation At the NATO summit on Monday in Brussels. But before Biden left, he and his wife met Queen Elizabeth at Windsor Castle. Then Jill Biden returned to the United States.
On Tuesday, a meeting is awaited with EU leaders, which will be mainly about the epidemic, the economy and various ways to strengthen the transatlantic relationship.
Joe Biden’s trip culminates in a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Geneva, Switzerland next Wednesday – which is expected to be frosty.
“I will let him understand what I want him to understand,” he said during the first night of his trip abroad.
After meeting his Russian counterpart, the president flies straight to his home in Washington, DC.
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