LONDON/WINDSOR: US President Joe Biden will look to deepen his relationships with Britain’s King Charles and Prime Minster Rishi Sunak at separate meetings on Monday where climate change and Ukraine are expected to dominate the agenda.
Biden landed in London late on Sunday to kick off a three-nation trip including a NATO summit in Lithuania aimed at showing solidarity with Ukraine against Russia’s invasion while not yet accepting Kyiv as a member of the alliance.
On Monday at Windsor Castle, the 80-year-old president and the 74-year-old king will discuss how to help boost private investment to combat climate change, a threat both leaders say is existential.
“The president has huge respect for the king’s commitment on the climate issue in particular. He has been a clarion voice on this issue,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday.
Sullivan said Biden hopes to deepen his personal relationship with King Charles. He said the two leaders — who don’t know each other well — had a phone conversation earlier this year that he described as “incredibly warm.”
The king will receive Biden in the quadrangle of the castle, where a guard of honor will give a Royal Salute and the US national anthem will be played, the king’s office said.
Biden met the king’s late mother, Queen Elizabeth, for tea at Windsor in 2021.
Earlier, the president will travel to 10 Downing Street on to hold a low-key meeting with Sunak, their fifth in as many months. Sullivan said the visit is more of a continuation of a long-running conversation than a formal meeting. It will mark Biden’s first visit to Downing Street as president.
Sullivan said the two leaders would share notes before the NATO summit in Lithuania, which kicks off on Tuesday and will be dominated by the Ukraine crisis, which has brought members of the alliance closer.
Ahead of the trip, Biden urged caution for now on Ukraine’s campaign to join NATO, saying the alliance could get drawn into the war with Russia due to NATO’s mutual defense pact.
“I don’t think there is unanimity in NATO about whether or not to bring Ukraine into the NATO family now, at this moment, in the middle of a war,” Biden said in a CNN interview that aired Sunday.
Biden’s trip comes a few days after he agreed to send US cluster munitions to Ukraine.
Such munitions are banned by more than 100 countries, including the United Kingdom, due to their threat to civilian populations because they typically release large numbers of smaller bomblets that can kill indiscriminately over a wide area.
Russia, Ukraine and the United States have not signed on to the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which bans production, stockpiling, use and transfer of the weapons.
“I think you find Prime Minister Sunak and President Biden on the same page strategically on Ukraine, in lock step on the bigger picture on what we are trying to accomplish, and as united as ever,” Sullivan said on Sunday.
Sunak, asked about cluster munitions on Saturday, said Britain was a signatory to the convention that discourages their use, and said it would keep doing its part to support Ukraine.
Biden to meet King Charles, PM Sunak ahead of NATO summit
https://arab.news/6b4nj
Biden to meet King Charles, PM Sunak ahead of NATO summit
- US president on a three-nation trip including a NATO summit in Lithuania
- Biden’s trip comes few days after he agreed to send US cluster munitions to Ukraine
Heavy shelling, explosions spark fear along Pakistan-Afghanistan border
- Residents fear for their safety amid border clashes
- 1,500 Afghan families displaced due to heavy shelling and explosions
- Pakistan denies targeting civilians, says its strikes focus on militants
LAL PUR, Afghanistan/PESHAWAR, Pakistan: People living along Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan said they were considering fleeing their homes because of heavy shelling and explosions as fighting between troops from both sides entered a seventh day on Wednesday.
The South Asian allies-turned-foes have engaged in their worst fighting in years following Pakistani airstrikes on major Afghan cities last week, increasing volatility in a region also on edge over US and Israeli strikes on Iran.
Islamabad has said its airstrikes, which have at times directly targeted the Taliban government, are aimed at ending Afghan support for militants carrying out attacks on Pakistan. The Taliban has denied aiding militant groups.
SHELLING STARTS AS VILLAGERS ARE BREAKING RAMADAN FAST
Residents of towns and villages in Pakistan’s northwest said fighting between border forces starts in the evenings, placing their homes in the line of fire, often at sunset when families are breaking their fast in the holy month of Ramadan.
“There is complete silence in the day, but the moment we sit for iftar dinner, the two sides start shelling,” Farid Khan Shinwari from Landi Kotal, a town near the Torkham border crossing, told Reuters.
“We open our fast in extremely difficult situations, as you never know when a shell can hit your house.”
Residents in the town and nearby villages said there had been heavy shelling and some explosions heard in the past few days, prompting many to flee their homes.
On the other side of the border, Afghans shared similar stories of skirmishes and families fleeing their homes.
Hundreds had been displaced to an open dirt field under makeshift tents, while others had no shelter at all. Officials say around 1,500 families have fled their homes.
Fighting along the 2,600-km (1,615-mile) border has ebbed and flowed over the week-long conflict, with both sides saying they have inflicted heavy losses on the other country and gained ground in the fighting.
Reuters has been unable to verify these accounts.
TURKEY HAS OFFERED TO MEDIATE
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif that Ankara would help reinstate a ceasefire, the Turkish Presidency said on Tuesday, as other countries that had offered to mediate have since been hit by the conflict in the Gulf.
On Wednesday, both countries reported exchanges of heavy fire, with Afghanistan’s defense ministry saying Taliban forces shot down a Pakistani drone and captured seven border posts.
A spokesperson for the ministry said 110 civilians, including 65 women and children, had been killed since the fighting began and another 123 were wounded. The United Nations mission for Afghanistan has listed 42 deaths so far.
Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar disputed both figures, saying: “Pakistan exercises great care in only targeting terrorists and support infrastructure. No civilian structures have been targeted.”
On Saturday, Pakistan struck “ammunition and critical equipment” at the Bagram air base north of Kabul, Tarar said, a key American command center through the 20-year Afghan war.
