Biden arrived on board the presidential plane at Mildenhall Air Force Base and is due to speak to members of the US Air Force in the evening.
President of USA Joe Biden arrived in UK on Wednesday for the first stop of a European tour and the G7 summit during which he will meet his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
Biden arrived on board the presidential plane at Mildenhall Air Force Base and is due to speak to members of the US Air Force in the evening. He will have a one-to-one meeting with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Thursday.
What did Biden say?
Biden, who arrived at the Royal Air Force's Mildenhall air base in eastern England, addressed the first remarks of his maiden tour abroad to US troops stationed in the UK.
"This is my first overseas trip as president of the United States. I'm heading to the G7, then the NATO ministerial and then to meet with Mr. Putin to let him know what I want him to know," Biden said, drawing cheers from the crowd.
"At every point along the way, we're going to make it clear that the United States is back, and democracies are standing together to tackle the toughest challenges and issues that matter the most to our future," he said.
"That we're committed to leading with strength, defending our values, and delivering for our people."
President Joe Biden on Wednesday embarked on his first overseas trip since taking office, seeking to reaffirm the United States' standing on the world stage with familiar allies, and portraying himself as the leader of the free world, including in his first face-to-face meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
After touching down in the United Kingdom, at Royal Air Force Base Mildenhall, Biden delivered a fiery speech to American service members stationed there, telling them he was going to Geneva "to meet with Mister Putin to let him know what I want him to know."
"I'll travel to Geneva to sit down with a man I’ve spent time with before, President Vladimir Putin," Biden said to cheers from many of the 1,000 airmen, their spouses and children in the audience. "We are not seeking conflict with Russia. We want a stable, predictable relationship. Our two nations share incredible responsibilities and, among them, ensuring strategic stability and upholding arms control agreements."
It was Biden’s first stop on his trip to Europe, and he laid out many of the large themes of his trip: America’s return to the world stage, reaffirming support for NATO, and celebrating multilateralism to address the world’s greatest challenges -- from the pandemic to global warming, from Russia to China.
"At every point along the way," Biden said, "we're going to make it clear that the United States is back and democracies of the world are standing together to tackle the toughest challenges and the issues that matter most to our future, that we're committed to leading with strength, defending our values, and delivering for our people."
His serious tone was in contrast to a joking moment Biden had with reporters before boarding Air Force One in Maryland. "Watch out for cicadas," Biden warned them, saying he had to brush one off his neck. "I just got one, it got me."
The White House previewed his trip Tuesday.
"He's been getting ready for 50 years. He has been on the world stage. He's known a number of these leaders for decades, including President Putin, and including a number of the leaders he'll see at NATO and he'll see at the G-7. Now, this is an important opportunity for him to see them in person, and there's nothing like face-to-face engagement in diplomacy," press secretary Jen Psaki said.
The climax of the trip will be his first meeting as president with Russian Putin next Wednesday in Geneva. There, Biden will be forced to walk a fine line. He plans to deliver a strong warning that malign attacks in the cybersecurity, military and political spheres will no longer be tolerated, while avoiding any escalation in the already-tense relationship, seeking to restore "predictability" and "stability," the White House has said.
Leading into that summit, Biden hopes to shore up the backing of long-term U.S. allies at the G-7 summit in the United Kingdom and at a NATO summit in Brussels. Wary after the shock of the Trump era, European allies will be looking to Biden to assure them the political upheaval of the past four years was more a blip than a true sea change, and that there’s substance behind Biden’s "America is Back" catchphrase.- Published by The Beyond News (Breaking News).