Britain’s King Charles III will address a joint meeting of Congress and meet privately with US President Donald Trump throughout his state visit to the United States later this month, Buckingham Palace introduced Tuesday.
Between April 27 and 30, Charles and Queen Camilla will visit Washington, DC, New York and Virginia, endeavor a range of public engagements to mark the 250th anniversary of US independence.
Their long-planned visit coincides with an unusually delicate time for the “special relationship” between the US and the UK following weeks of Trump repeatedly attacking British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his authorities for not providing their full-throated assist for the US offensive in opposition to Iran.
Some British lawmakers even questioned whether or not Charles ought to nonetheless go to the US below such circumstances, earlier than the palace confirmed the visit final month.
As the monarch, nevertheless, Charles is constitutionally sure to stay above politics, in a position solely to characterize the UK moderately than converse for its authorities.
Rather than discussing any of the anxieties across the present state of the transatlantic alliance, this system for this state visit seeks to shore up the deep, historic hyperlinks between the 2 nations. As the palace put it, the visit goals to showcase “the breadth of the economic, security and cultural relationship” which has developed because the US signed the Declaration of Independence.
Upon arriving within the US, Charles and Camilla will privately meet with Trump and First Lady Melania Trump earlier than attending a backyard social gathering and a proper welcome ceremony, that includes a ceremonial navy assessment, the palace stated.
Charles and Trump will meet privately, as will Camilla and Melania, the palace added. Later, Charles will address a joint meeting of the US Congress, changing into the second British monarch to accomplish that, after his mom Queen Elizabeth II spoke on the Capitol in 1991.
There may also be a state dinner and a ceremony honoring fallen troopers to “mark the military partnership between the UK and the US,” which has come below some pressure in current weeks over the UK’s refusal to be additional drawn into the warfare in Iran.
After leaving Washington, the royal couple will journey to New York the place they are going to commemorate these killed on 9/11 and meet with a company working with younger individuals “affected by food insecurity through a sustainable urban farming after-school initiative.”
They may also attend occasions searching for to spotlight the cultural and financial hyperlinks between the US and UK, together with one celebrating each nations’ literary heritage.
And in Virginia, the couple will meet with some of the realm’s indigenous communities and conservation teams. They will then head to Bermuda, a British abroad territory within the north Atlantic Ocean, for a two-day visit.