uk prime minister visit to usa

British Prime Minister's Visit Biden and Sunak Agree to Strengthen Economic Ties and A.I. Safety

The leaders also focused on their shared support for Ukraine, with Sunak saying, “We will be here as long as it takes.” It was his first visit to Washington as prime minister.

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Biden Announces New Economic Agreement With the U.K.

President biden and prime minister rishi sunak of britain said the new plan would strengthen economic ties between the two countries..

“Today, we’re releasing a new plan to equip our economic partnership for the 21st century. It outlines how we can enhance our cooperation to accelerate the clean energy transition that must take place, and is taking place, lead the development of emerging technologies that are going to shape so much of our future and protect technologies critical to our national security. And a key piece of that is working together to strengthen our critical minerals supply chains and to make them more resilient. So we’re not dependent on any one country to meet our goals.” “This week alone, 14 billion pounds of new American investment has been committed into the U.K., creating thousands of jobs. It means stronger supply chains with a new action plan on clean energy, and it means reducing trade barriers in the technologies of the future, with a new secure U.K.-U.S. data bridge, helping tens of thousands of small businesses.”

Katie Rogers

Biden and Sunak say their countries will support Ukraine for the long haul.

President Biden and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of Britain affirmed their support for Ukraine on Thursday, pledging to continue drumming up financial and military aid for Kyiv as fighting intensifies on Russia’s front lines .

Mr. Sunak, who made his first visit as prime minister to Washington and is intent on establishing a post-Brexit Britain as a competent and reliable global player, said his country would not turn away from Ukraine. That commitment comes even as both he and Mr. Biden face economic headwinds and domestic concerns about the length of the war.

“There is no point in trying to wait us out,” Mr. Sunak said at a news conference with Mr. Biden in the East Room of the White House, addressing Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, whom he accused of wrongly assuming that the West would tire of providing support. “We will be here as long as it takes.”

Mr. Biden said he was confident that he could persuade a divided Congress to support a new round of funding for Ukraine, though he would not put a dollar amount on the package.

“I believe we’ll have the funding necessary to support Ukraine as long as it takes,” Mr. Biden said, adding that a “vast majority” of his critics in Congress would agree that funding Ukraine would be better than allowing Russia to go unchecked.

Mr. Sunak’s two-day visit was a high-profile engagement for a 43-year-old leader who has held his office only since October and is eager to establish himself on the world stage. It also presented an opportunity for Mr. Biden to deepen his relationship with a young leader who is keenly aware that his role has historically been to be one of the closest allies to the American president.

Both men hailed the special relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom, with each taking time to praise the other for leadership on Ukraine. But Mr. Sunak, who has been in pursuit of a free-trade agreement with the United States — something that Brexit supporters in Britain promised as an alternative to membership in the European Union — will leave Washington with only a modest pact unveiled by both countries on Thursday.

The agreement, called the Atlantic Declaration, will bring the countries closer on research around quantum computing, semiconductor technologies and artificial intelligence, a field in which developments are often faster than the efforts to regulate them.

“What it does is responds to the particular opportunities and challenges that we face right now and into the future,” Mr. Sunak said of the agreement, when asked if it meant that he had failed on his promise to secure a trade deal. Mr. Biden, whose Inflation Reduction Act raised some concerns among allies , said that shoring up manufacturing in the United States and bolstering supply chains would “not hurt any of our allies and friends in terms of the trade pieces.”

Mr. Sunak did not receive an easy victory in his soft campaign to replace NATO’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, who is expected to leave his post in September . Mr. Sunak has publicly pushed for his defense secretary, Ben Wallace, to take the job. When a reporter asked if it was time for a British official to serve as the secretary general, Mr. Sunak grinned widely, but Mr. Biden did not take the bait.

“That remains to be seen,” Mr. Biden said. Earlier in the week, he hosted Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen of Denmark, who is also said to be interested in the job.

Mr. Biden had warm words for Mr. Sunak when it came to the prime minister’s efforts to bring leaders together over issues raised by artificial intelligence. Mr. Sunak is a self-described “techie” who will host a summit on A.I. later this year.

“We are looking to Great Britain to help make that effort to figure out a way through this so we are in full, total cooperation,” Mr. Biden said.

The exchange over A.I. was met with measured skepticism by experts who noted that the efforts of a post-Brexit prime minister may do little to spur leaders to act.

“A London conference on AI regulation is a good thing,” Peter Ricketts, a former national security adviser to Prime Minister David Cameron, wrote on Twitter . “The Brits are good at convening. But this isn’t the same as leading on norm-setting. The heavy lifting is going on in the US-EU dialogue.”

But others pointed out that Mr. Sunak has worked to bring his country closer to an array of allies, including by signing off on a plan with the United States and Australia to develop and deploy nuclear-powered attack submarines.

“Making this whole partnership with the United States and Australia, and even Korea and Singapore, more of a thing is the most natural way he can continue to help Britain punch above its weight,” Michael E. O’Hanlon, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said in an interview.

Mr. Biden and Mr. Sunak have met several times at diplomatic events in recent months, including over coffee when Mr. Biden traveled to Northern Ireland in April. Despite their political differences — Mr. Biden is a moderate liberal and Mr. Sunak a conservative — both men have a shared leadership style that emphasizes even-keeled diplomacy.

Mr. Biden has spent much of his time in office seeking to stabilize the United States’ relationship with allies around the world after the Trump presidency. And Mr. Sunak, who became prime minister after the bombastic tenure of Boris Johnson and the very brief one of Liz Truss , has sought to establish himself as a more dependable occupant of 10 Downing Street. Yet both leaders have low approval ratings, and both lead countries that have so far managed to avoid an economic recession but whose voters feel financially constrained by inflation.

On this visit, Mr. Sunak was under pressure to assure doubters in the United States and at home that, after Brexit, Britain remains as reliable an ally as ever. He came to Washington with gifts, including a custom Barbour jacket, a staple of British outerwear, for Mr. Biden, and both leaders peppered their meetings with historical knowledge about prime minister-presidential relationships past.

“Prime Minister Churchill and Roosevelt met here a little over 70 years ago, and they asserted that the strength of the partnership between Great Britain and the United States was the strength of the free world,” Mr. Biden said. “I still think there’s truth to that assertion.”

There was the occasional personal flourish — mostly from Mr. Sunak — including when the prime minister mentioned at the news conference that their wives had gotten to know each other over spin class dates. At one point, he complimented his lodgings at Blair House, the home across the White House reserved for foreign dignitaries: “The spare room in the flat in Number 10 Downing Street doesn’t quite compare,” he quipped.

Still, their bond did not yet appear to be the same close one that Tony Blair forged with President Bill Clinton and then with President George W. Bush. At another point, Mr. Sunak invoked Churchill’s early-morning wanderings of the White House and “bothering Mrs. Roosevelt.”

“Don’t worry,” Mr. Sunak said, “you won’t see me doing that.”

Stephen Castle contributed reporting from London.

Zolan Kanno-Youngs

Taking one last question from reporters, Biden was asked why voters should trust an independent Justice Department as it investigates Trump. Biden said that he had never told the Justice Department what it should do. “I am honest.”

Biden smiled broadly when asked about accusations from congressional Republicans that he was involved in a bribery scheme. “Where’s the money?” he asked, before calling the allegations “a bunch of malarkey.”

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Stephen Castle

The body language today has been notably warmer and more relaxed than when Biden met Sunak for coffee at a hotel in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in April. Still, this doesn’t look quite like the same kind of close bond that Tony Blair forged with President Clinton and then President George W. Bush.

With NATO’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, expected to leave his post in September , Sunak has publicly pushed for his defense secretary to take the job. Sunak grinned widely when the last question was about whether it is time for a British official to lead NATO. “That remains to be seen,” Biden said, not taking the bait.

Mark Landler

Brexiteers billed a free-trade agreement with the United States as a major dividend of leaving the European Union. Sunak is making the best of what is at most a consolation prize.

Sunak has faced domestic criticism over the lack of a comprehensive free trade agreement with the United States because his party suggested in 2019 that it could secure one within three years. He’s now being accused of a broken promise.

The White House had to postpone an outdoor Pride Month event because of the air pollution outside — what a sentence — but Biden says that his administration is taking steps to counter anti-L.G.B.T.Q. sentiment in the United States, including what the president says is a plan to “strengthen the physical safety” of marches, community events and health care centers. The event has been rescheduled for Saturday.

Biden has often said foreign allies are concerned and ask about human rights violations and threats against democratic norms within the United States. Sunak is getting a front-row seat for the discussion of those threats today as Biden is asked about the restricting of transgender rights in the United States.

The new agreement “Atlantic Declaration” on economic cooperation may be nothing like a transatlantic trade agreement, but it helps Sunak’s domestic argument that Britain has a secure future after Brexit, which took it out of the European Union and its massive trading market.

Sunak, who is a similarly vocal supporter of Kyiv, said that Vladimir V. Putin of Russia would be wrong if he assumed that Western allies would tire of supporting Ukraine. “There is no point in trying to wait us out,” Mr. Sunak said. “We will be here as long as it takes.”

“I believe we’ll have the funding to support Ukraine as long as it takes,” Biden says in what appeared to be a prepared answer (he is looking at notes). This comes amid questions on Capitol Hill about additional funding for Ukraine aid.

Taking a question on Ukraine, Biden says that the United States has “done everything we could” to prepare Kyiv to mount an aggressive counteroffensive on Russian front lines, and added that he was confident that Congress would continue to approve funding for support as the fighting continued, despite infighting among Republicans and softening domestic support for the war.

Biden did not answer a question about how much continuing support Ukraine might cost.

Sunak’s pitch to doubters in the United States is that, after Brexit, Britain remains “as reliable” an ally as ever. He aims to reassure those in United States who saw Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union as a retreat from the global stage.

Early in his remarks, Biden praised Sunak for his support for Ukraine. This comes as Republicans in Congress debate how to support Ukraine with additional funding. And some House Republicans say they will fight additional aid to Ukraine. The administration has not said whether it will seek a supplemental bill in the coming weeks.

On Ukraine, Sunak returned the compliment by praising the United States for providing “leadership and resources” that have allowed “the forces of democracy and freedom to prevail.”

President Biden has used the words Rishi Sunak will have wanted to hear about U.S-U.K. ties, calling it a “special relationship.” He added: “there is no country closer to us than the United Kingdom.”

Biden says that the United States and the United Kingdom are releasing an economic plan that will help strengthen economic ties between the two countries, including plans to strengthen the global minerals supply chain. And on quantum computing and A.I., Biden says “we are going to do more on joint research and development to ensure the future will remain fundamentally aligned with the values of both of our countries.”

Biden has already corrected one previous mistake by correctly pronouncing the prime minister’s name. During a White House event celebrating Diwali last year, Biden mispronounced Rishi Sunak’s name while congratulating him for becoming the United Kingdom’s new prime minister.

Biden and Sunak have taken the stage and the president began his remarks by addressing the wildfires in Canada. He said that over 600 firefighters have been deployed to Canada and he urged Americans to heed guidance from local officials.

A jolly-sounding voice on the PA system just told us to silence our cell phones so hopefully this presser is imminent.

Some of Biden’s closest advisers have taken their seats in the East Room, a sign that we may be getting closer to the start of the news conference.

The news conference is running about a half hour behind schedule. This is not completely out of the ordinary for Biden.

Michael D. Shear

Reporting from Washington.

Biden and Sunak will look for ways to protect supply chains against global threats.

President Biden and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak are trying to find ways to strengthen their intertwined supply chains against further damage from foreign adversaries and other global threats.

Mr. Sunak’s government, like those in other European capitals, has expressed frustration over the trade implications of Mr. Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, which sends billions of dollars in subsidies to American companies in the green energy industry.

But Mr. Sunak is not expected to press for a free-trade agreement between the two nations. Rather, the British leader is stressing the need for even greater cooperation to fend off hostile threats to both economies, officials said.

“The UK and US have always worked in lock step to protect our people and uphold our way of life,” he said ahead of the meeting, according to a statement from the British embassy. “As the challenges and threats we face change, we need to build an alliance that also protects our economies.”

Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, said last month that the two leaders will “discuss efforts to continue strengthening our economic relationship as we confront shared economic and national security challenges.”

The economic relationship with Britain is a critical one for the United States. Trade between the two nations is worth about $350 billion a year, and there are numerous ties between companies located in both the United States and Britain.

But Britain’s decision to exit the European Union caused trade tensions between the two that proved to be an irritant in the relationship with Washington. Earlier this year, with Mr. Biden’s urging, Mr. Sunak resolved a trade dispute with Northern Ireland, a move seen as positive by Mr. Biden’s administration.

And the two countries waged a yearslong war of tariffs over a dispute involving Airbus and Boeing. The two countries lifted tariffs in that dispute in the summer of 2021, after 17 years.

But British officials stressed ahead of Thursday’s meeting that Mr. Sunak intends to focus on expanding the economic connections between the two countries.

“By combining our vast economic resources and expertise, we will grow our economies, create jobs and keep our people safe long into the future,” Mr. Sunak said.

On Thursday British reporters traveling with the British prime minister challenged him over the lack of progress toward a trade deal with the United States, pointing out that achieving one within three years was an objective set out by Mr. Sunak’s Conservative Party in its 2019 election manifesto.

Asked whether this was now a broken promise, Mr. Sunak rejected that assertion, telling Sky News that it reflected a changed macro economic situation after 2019. “Since then, we’ve had a pandemic. We’ve had a war in Ukraine and that has changed the macro economic situation,” he said.

In Britain, a trade agreement with the United States had been presented as a potential opportunity to offset the economic costs of Brexit, a policy that Mr. Sunak supported. In reality, any prospect of a comprehensive deal faded some time ago, but political opponents seized on Mr. Sunak’s words on Thursday.

“It’s clear they have failed on that promise, among many other promises,” said Keir Starmer, the leader of Britain’s opposition Labour Party.

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In his 1st White House visit, Rishi Sunak talks Ukraine, AI — and how to say his name

Fatima Al-Kassab

Lauren Frayer

Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak appeared as a guest at a Washington Nationals baseball game on Wednesday. Kevin LaMarque/Pool/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak appeared as a guest at a Washington Nationals baseball game on Wednesday.

LONDON — When Rishi Sunak became the United Kingdom's prime minister last fall, it was right around the Indian holiday of Diwali — and Sunak is the first U.K. prime minister of Indian descent. So President Biden gave him a shout-out at the White House Diwali party.

But he botched the pronunciation of Sunak's name. So did his press secretary . By January, he still couldn't get it right . (It's pronounced RIH-shee — rhymes with "dishy" — SOO-nak. Some U.K. media even nicknamed him "Dishy Rishi.")

That left some in London with the impression the Biden administration hadn't learned who the British prime minister was — or didn't care.

Rishi Sunak takes over as U.K. PM facing enormous economic and political challenges

When Biden traveled to Sunak's region in April , for the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, which ended decades of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland, it was an opportunity for a reset. But he spent four days in Ireland and less than a full day on the U.K. side — barely enough time to grab a cup of coffee with Sunak. (The press dubbed their bilateral meeting a "bi-latte.")

Biden later told a fundraiser in New York that he only went to the commemoration to ensure "the Brits didn't screw around."

So as Sunak heads to the White House Thursday, he's looking to reset what's long been called a "special relationship" between Britain and the United States. He wants to prove that after Brexit, former Prime Minister Boris Johnson and political turmoil in London, Britain remains one of the most important U.S. allies.

Sunak walks onto the baseball field at Nationals Park. The British prime minister is in Washington in part to focus on "specific and targeted" ways to improve trade between the U.S. and the U.K. Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

Sunak walks onto the baseball field at Nationals Park. The British prime minister is in Washington in part to focus on "specific and targeted" ways to improve trade between the U.S. and the U.K.

"There has been an unusual level of political turbulence. Sunak will want to get the impression across that stability has been restored," says Kim Darroch, a former British ambassador to Washington. "As for Britain's place in the world, we're the second-biggest contributor in terms of military assistance to Ukraine. We are the second-largest contributor to NATO. So there's no question we can still bring something to the table."

Critics say Sunak's goals are small

Ukraine is expected to dominate Thursday's White House talks. The topic is even more urgent in light of the destruction of a dam in southern Ukraine this week, and amid speculation about the start of the Ukrainian military's long-awaited counteroffensive .

The U.K. will have 5 prime ministers in just 6 years. What's gone wrong?

Sunak may lobby Biden to back his U.K. defense secretary, Ben Wallace, to become the next secretary-general of NATO . The current one, Jens Stoltenberg, is expected to step down in September.

Any hopes of a major post-Brexit trade deal with the U.S. have been abandoned though, with Sunak instead saying he is focused on "specific and targeted" ways to improve trade between the two countries. These reportedly may include a carve-out to protect the U.K. car industry from Biden's green subsidies, or some offer on digital services.

But some say this would be only a minor win.

Sunak takes part in a sustainability project during a visit Wednesday to the Friendship Technology Preparatory High School in Washington, D.C. He meets with President Biden on Thursday. Kevin LaMarque/Pool/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

Sunak takes part in a sustainability project during a visit Wednesday to the Friendship Technology Preparatory High School in Washington, D.C. He meets with President Biden on Thursday.

"Compared to the ambition of a few years ago, it feels a bit small," says Mujtaba Rahman, managing director of Europe at the Eurasia Group, a risk analysis think tank.

Britain wants to lead on AI

Sunak may have more luck getting Biden to back some of his plans related to artificial intelligence. In a bid to position the U.K. as a leader on AI, Sunak's government announced late Wednesday that London would host a global AI summit this fall to discuss ways of monitoring the technology's risks.

Asked by reporters on the plane to Washington whether his plans for the U.K.'s role in AI diplomacy were realistic, Sunak insisted that "this midsized country happens to be a global leader" in the technology.

But the European Union is also a leader on AI, and U.S. officials have already signed agreements on the topic with their EU counterparts. Since Britain has left the EU, analysts say the U.K. may struggle to keep up.

"There's something of a scramble now by Sunak to try to forge an influential and important role in this very quickly maturing AI debate," Rahman says. "I think it's going to be very hard."

So Sunak will be looking for any wins from this White House visit: a photo op with Biden, exuding stability, continued collaboration on Ukraine — and hopefully, a U.S. administration that's learned how to pronounce his name.

Correction June 8, 2023

A previous wire photo caption mistakenly said Prime Minister Rishi Sunak would meet President Bush instead of President Biden. Another caption previously said Sunak would be throwing the first pitch at a Washington Nationals baseball game, but he opted not to do so.

• Rishi Sunak
• United Kingdom

Why Biden Is Rolling Out the Red Carpet for British PM Rishi Sunak

A s Rishi Sunak arrived in Washington on Wednesday for his first White House visit as U.K. Prime Minister, it became clear that his relationship with Joe Biden has improved significantly since the U.S. President mistakenly called him “Rashi Sanook” just months earlier.

On Thursday, Biden, 80, and Sunak, 43, will meet for the fifth time since the latter’s appointment in October, when he became the U.K.’s third Prime Minister in a particularly tumultuous year for the nation. Since then, the leaders have crossed paths during the G20 summit, marked the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland, and attended a defense meeting with Australia’s Prime Minister in San Diego, as well as the G7 summit in Japan.

But their latest meeting is being viewed as a more intentional display of allyship. “Britain is really important to the U.S. and sometimes it risks being taken for granted but if you look at every major security issue—defense, intelligence, China, Russia, technology—the U.S. and the U.K. are side by side,” says Leslie Vinjamuri, director of the U.S. and the Americas program at Chatham House.

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And the importance of that allyship will be on display with the favorable reception Sunak will receive in Washington compared with his recent predecessors.

The two-day trip will see Sunak staying at Blair House , the President’s official guesthouse, which resides just across the way from White House. Sunak is the first Prime Minister since David Cameron, who led the U.K. from 2010 to 2016, to be invited to stay in what has been dubbed “the world’s most exclusive hotel.”

During the short visit, Sunak will also deliver a rare joint press conference with Biden, and attend a baseball game between the Washington Nationals and the Arizona Diamondbacks. Both the President and First Lady Jill Biden are keen baseball fans who support the Phillies, so Sunak’s invitation adds a personal touch to what has been described as a “friendship event.” Sunak will not, however, take on the honor of throwing the ceremonial first pitch.

As Biden rolls out the red carpet for Sunak, here’s what to know.

What does the trip represent for Sunak and Biden?

While the stakes are expectedly higher for Britain during this visit, due to the U.S.’ outsized global influence, both leaders could bolster their political messaging to domestic and international audiences ahead of upcoming elections .

“For Sunak, it’s an opportunity to be seen as an international statesman, someone who’s trying to boost Britain economically by striking deals, not necessarily trade deals, but investment deals with other countries,” says Anand Menon, director of the U.K. in a Changing Europe think-tank and a professor at King’s College London.

The trip will provide ample opportunities for Sunak to be photographed next to Biden, which Menon notes is helpful for the Prime Minister’s global image, but also presents a message of a united Western alliance. “For Biden, it’s part of a broader multilateral diplomacy he is going to be undertaking,” Menon adds.

For Biden, a united front with Britain also poses an opportunity to remind Americans that Europe is also playing a leading role in supporting Ukraine as its counteroffensive gathers pace . “Having himself and the Prime Minister alongside each other, visibly speaking to that commitment, is very good for Biden in the current context,” Vinjamuri says.

What will Biden and Sunak discuss?

While a full trade deal between the U.S. remains off the table , top of the agenda will likely be cooperation talks about the ongoing war in Ukraine, investment in green industries, and the regulation of artificial intelligence. “Just as interoperability between our militaries has given us a battlefield advantage over our adversaries, greater economic interoperability will give us a crucial edge in the decades ahead,” Sunak said in a statement ahead of the talks.

Sunak also said he expects to discuss Biden’s flagship $370 billion investment package in green industries that aim to cut carbon emissions. But select British ministers have been critical of Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, saying that is harmful to world trade.

Vinjamuri says that with trade a top focus, Sunak could speak to his domestic audience if he can deliver on a minerals deal or across digital trade. “If he can take one of those things that’s on a new emerging technology, or that speaks to the Inflation Reduction Act, or protects Britain’s automobile industry, and deliver that as a win, that will certainly be a really important thing for the Prime Minister,” she adds.

Are British-American relations at a strong point?

Despite the amount of face time the two leaders will have with each other, Menon believes this is more likely due to “happenstance” than a particularly thriving personal relationship between Biden and Sunak.

Vinjamuri says that relations are rather mixed at the moment. “Cooperation on things that matter most: Ukraine, Russia, China, is at a high point, but it’s not at a high point, in terms of the two leaders,” she says. “The U.S. hasn’t been thrilled about the instability and transitions in the U.K.”

She cites Brexit as a political event that strained U.K. and U.S. relations, because of its potential consequences on the U.S.-brokered 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which ended decades of violence between unionists and republicans in Northern Ireland.

Despite this, Vinjamuri says Sunak, the first British Asian and Hindu Prime Minister, represents an opportunity for unique and more diverse relations with the U.S. “It goes some distance to rectify this view that Britain’s turned inwards, and is parochial and lacking a global vision,” she says. “The meeting is going to be a very nice moment symbolically.”

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Write to Armani Syed at [email protected]

UK Prime Minister Sunak talks trade, AI and Ukraine on US trip

The UK prime minister is set to meet with US Congress members, business leaders and President Biden on a two-day visit.

United Kingdom Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has begun a visit to Washington, DC, where topics like artificial intelligence (AI), the war in Ukraine and transatlantic trade are set to dominate two days of meetings.

Sunak opened his visit on Wednesday by laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery, just outside Washington, DC, before meeting with congressional leaders. He is scheduled to join US President Joe Biden at the White House on Thursday.

Keep reading

Uk pm sunak fires conservative party chairman after tax probe, britain’s sunak announces $22bn japanese investment in uk economy, rishi sunak’s proposed anti-asylum bill is dangerous.

During his visit, Sunak said he would stress the UK’s ability to play a “leadership role” in regulating AI .

“Outside of the US, we are probably the leading AI nation amongst democratic countries. We have an ability to get regulation right to protect our citizens,” he told the UK’s TalkTV on Wednesday.

During the interview, he also rejected the idea that his country’s 2020 exit from the European Union undermined its ability to assume such a role. For its part, the EU bloc held its own dialogue with the US about creating an AI code of conduct last week.

Sunak instead pointed to his track record as chancellor of the exchequer, the UK’s finance minister, as evidence that he was at the forefront of the myriad issues AI raises.

“I saw that this was coming, and I want to make sure that we are well placed as a country to both benefit from it but also to be protected against its harms,” he told TalkTV.

Sunak’s visit comes shortly after the Nova Kakhovka dam in Ukraine’s Kherson ruptured on Tuesday, flooding cities, villages and ecosystems. Ukraine and Russia have traded accusations over who was responsible, alleging possible sabotage, but neither the US nor the UK has officially identified a culprit in the incident.

Nevertheless, Sunak said on Wednesday that — if UK intelligence services did determine the rupture to be the intentional work of Russia — “it will represent a new low … an appalling barbarism on Russia’s part”.

He added, in an interview with ITV News, that Russia has broadly pursued a “deliberate strategy to target civilian infrastructure”.

“It is wrong, it’s barbaric, and it’s appalling. That’s why we’re providing such strong support to [Ukraine] and will continue to do so,” he said.

Perhaps looming largest over the trip will be Sunak’s efforts to boost trade between the two countries, which he said he hopes will one day mirror their long-standing military alliance.

The prospect of a full free-trade deal with Washington was once seen by Brexit backers as a possible economic prize of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU. But the US has shown reluctance to consider such a move, leaving recent UK governments to seek more modest trade agreements.

Despite the Biden administration’s tepid response to a free-trade deal, Sunak issued a statement earlier this week promoting greater economic collaboration.

“Just as interoperability between our militaries has given us a battlefield advantage over our adversaries, greater economic interoperability will give us a crucial edge in the decades ahead,” Sunak said.

The prime minister will also meet separately with US business leaders during his visit. En route to Washington, Sunak announced more than 14 billion pounds ($17bn) in investments from US firms in Britain — though that figure includes some funds that have already been deployed.

Sunak’s government has also been under pressure to respond after Biden launched $369bn of subsidies to drive the development of electric vehicles and other clean technologies in the US.

That investment prompted the EU to set out its own industrial plan for the development of electric vehicles, a prospect that could threaten UK manufacturing operations, which face heightened tariffs.

Sunak has said a new US-UK alliance would help both countries protect their supply chains and navigate a global economy where new powers are “manipulating global markets, withholding crucial resources and trying to establish a stranglehold over the industries that will define our future”.

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Joe Biden to meet King and PM during July visit to UK

The us president will meet the king and prime minister rishi sunak when he visits the uk later this month., article bookmarked.

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Joe Biden will meet the King and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak when he visits the UK later this month.

A visit to the UK had long been expected and comes after Mr Sunak visited Washington last month for talks with the US president.

Downing Street said that the visit reflected the “strong relationship” between the UK and US, after the White House confirmed the trip.

“President Biden is scheduled to travel to the United Kingdom, Lithuania, and Finland from July 9-13.

“President Biden will first travel to London, United Kingdom for engagements with King Charles III and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to further strengthen the close relationship between our nations,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.

Buckingham Palace confirmed that the King will meet Mr Biden at Windsor Castle on July 10.

A No 10 spokeswoman said: “The Prime Minister looks forward to welcoming President Biden in the UK later this month.

“This reflects the strong relationship between the UK and US, building on a series of bilateral visits and meetings earlier this year.”

Mr Biden made a brief trip to Northern Ireland earlier this year to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, meeting the Prime Minister for brief talks in Belfast.

The White House said that after visiting the UK Mr Biden would “then travel to Vilnius, Lithuania from July 11- 12 to attend the 74th Nato Summit”.

“On July 13, President Biden will visit Helsinki, Finland for a US-Nordic Leaders Summit.”

The apparently short trip by Mr Biden comes after the US and the UK announced a new partnership, the “Atlantic Declaration”, to bolster economic security.

Announced during Mr Sunak’s visit to the White House, it included commitments on easing trade barriers, closer defence industry ties and a data protection deal.

While both sides used that Washington visit to hail the strength of US-UK ties, Mr Biden has not been afraid of occasionally criticising London.

Mr Biden in May claimed that he visited the island of Ireland earlier this year to ensure the “Brits didn’t screw around”, amid ongoing US concern about the impact of Brexit on the peace process.

During that visit, the President told the Irish parliament that he believed the UK should be working more closely with the administration in Dublin to support Northern Ireland.

Mr Biden and First Lady Jill Biden travelled to London for the funeral of the late Queen last September.

The US President did not attend the King’s coronation, with his wife attending instead.

Mr Sunak will also be attending the Nato summit in Vilnius, which is seen as a crunch summit at which a compromise on Ukraine’s demand for membership of the alliance is expected to be hammered out.

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Visits By Foreign Leaders of United Kingdom

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The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW Washington, DC 20500

Joint Statement on the Visit to the United Kingdom of the Honorable Joseph R. Biden, Jr., President of the United   States of America at the Invitation of the Rt. Hon. Boris Johnson, M.P., the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern   Ireland

Today, President Biden visited the U.K. at the invitation of the Prime Minister and in advance of the G7 Summit. The President and the Prime Minister set out a global vision in a new Atlantic Charter to deepen cooperation in democracy and human rights, defence and security, science and innovation, and economic prosperity, with renewed joint efforts to tackle the challenges posed by climate change, biodiversity loss, and emerging health threats.

DEMOCRACY, HUMAN RIGHTS, & MULTILATERALISM

• Building on the U.K. G7 Presidency’s focus on open societies, and looking ahead to the U.S.-hosted Summit for Democracy, the U.S. and U.K. will continue to make practical efforts to support open societies and democracy across the globe. We will do this by defending media freedom, advancing a free and open internet, combatting corruption, tackling disinformation, protecting civic space, advancing women’s political empowerment, protecting freedom of religion or belief, and promoting human rights of all people.  The United Nations remains the cornerstone of the international system, and its foundational principles reflect our shared values.  In the 75 years since the UN’s creation, international security has been increasingly challenged by threats that do not recognise borders: climate change, pandemics, famine, migration, organised crime, and terrorism. The U.K. and U.S. will work with the UN and our international partners to continue to adapt and reform the international system to tackle these evolving threats and to build back better for the 21st century, while remaining true to the universal founding principles of the UN and the core values of its Charter. We commit to promoting peaceful and inclusive societies to reduce injustice, inequality, poverty, and hunger worldwide. We carry responsibility for creating sustainable and viable conditions to global economic challenges through our commitment to the G7 Agenda and 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development, and we will work together to address pre-existing inequities and inequalities being exacerbated by COVID-19, ensuring they no longer go unaddressed. The U.S. and U.K. are committed to promoting the advancement of gender equity and equality as a key pillar of foreign policy and national security, including through educating girls, empowering women socially, economically, and politically, and ending violence against women and girls. 

DEFENCE & SECURITY

• We commit to enhance further the world’s strongest bilateral defence, security, and intelligence partnership to overcome the evolving threats of the twenty-first century. This includes threats and challenges associated with: cyberspace, foreign interference, harmful influence campaigns, illicit finance, violent conflict and extremism, and terrorism in all its forms. To this end, we will continue our partnership on those challenges, including working together closely on cyber security, countering illicit finance, and tackling all forms of terrorism by working together to address it online and enhance international collaboration on thwarting violent extremism that is racially, ethnically or ideologically motivated, including a range of hateful and white supremacist ideologies.  
• Through strong and principled leadership we will work to shape and secure the international order of the future with NATO as the bedrock of our collective defence. We will work together to further strengthen and modernise NATO, and increase its common funding, so the Alliance can harness the full range of military and non-military capabilities to contest existing and new threats, including malicious cyber activity and attacks that test the resiliency of our societies. We intend to take operational measures to modernise and integrate our armed forces, and strengthen bilateral cooperation on next generation capabilities. Last month, the U.K.’s new aircraft carrier, HMS QUEEN ELIZABETH, sailed on her first operational mission with U.S. and U.K. F-35 aircraft on board – a demonstration of the unique interoperability of our Armed Forces.  As we maintain close alignment on our nuclear deterrence and modernisation programs, we reaffirm our commitment to effective arms control and nuclear security, and to the goal of a world without nuclear weapons. We will draw on our extensive diplomatic, defence, security, civil and scientific cooperation to ensure Space is a safe and secure environment for all.   
• We look forward to bringing into force a robust bilateral data access agreement, to be based on a mutual recognition that both countries have an appropriately high level of data protection, that allows law enforcement investigations on both sides of the Atlantic to obtain the evidence needed to bring offenders to justice, whilst maintaining rigorous privacy standards. We will work together to maintain tightly-controlled lawful access to communications content that is vital to the investigation and prosecution of serious crimes including terrorism and child abuse. And we will work in partnership with technology companies to do this, protecting the safety of our citizens.

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

• We will develop a new landmark bilateral technology partnership in 2021/22. It will enable a new era of strategic cooperation to guarantee: the safety and security of our citizens; that we continue to lead the world in R&D; wealth creation and tackling inequality; the values of liberal democracies, open societies and open markets; and that all of these are codified in and threaded throughout the design and use of technology globally We will strengthen cooperation in areas such as: ensuring the diversity, resilience and security of our critical supply chains; enabling our industries and research institutions to develop and apply existing and emerging technologies such as AI, quantum, and battery technologies; and reducing barriers to the accessibility and flow of data to support economic growth, public safety and scientific & technological progress.  
• We will continue to strengthen collaboration in science and technology. This will facilitate increased joint world-class research, as well as encourage the development of rules, norms and standards governing data sharing, technology, and the digital economy that reflect our values and principles. We will cooperate on the basis of openness, transparency, and reciprocity, and in hope of ensuring that our collaborative research benefits our people. We will combine our expertise to tackle global challenges, such as cancer, antimicrobial resistance, climate change, and pandemic preparedness. We will do this through closer coordination between the Prime Minister’s Council for Science and Technology and the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, and through closer collaboration between U.S. and U.K. senior science and technology advisers.

TRADE & PROSPERITY

• We commit to deepening and strengthening our vital economic and trading partnership. We commit to the rapid settlement of the Large Civil Aircraft dispute.  Both countries recognise that trade, when done right, can support our mutual interest in sustainable and green growth, good jobs for our workers, new opportunities for our innovators and businesses, and high labour and environmental standards.  We will therefore work closely to identify and pursue opportunities to deepen our already extensive trade relationship.                
• We reaffirm our commitment to spur economic regeneration and build back better in a way that benefits all communities that have experienced the pain of economic change and advances equality for all – not just in cities, but also small towns and post-industrial areas.  Mindful of the distributional consequences of economic policy and that current economic models do not serve all equally in society or adequately tackle issues such as the climate crisis, and recognising the need for equality of opportunity, we intend to launch a new joint initiative that brings together experts, practitioners and officials to advance a new “common sense” about how the economy works and the goals it should promote; the initiative will share best practice and review the evidence around public policies to tackle structural inequalities across the economy and deliver prosperity across society.  
• We are proud to welcome G7 leaders’ discussions around a values-driven, high-standard and transparent, infrastructure partnership that seeks to collectively mobilise private-sector capital through catalytic investments      in low- and middle-income countries from our development finance tools. We look forward to discussing the outline of this new partnership with our G7 partners in Carbis Bay.  
• We also welcome the efforts underway through the G20/OECD Inclusive Framework to address the tax challenges arising from globalisation and the digitalisation of the economy and to adopt a global minimum tax. We commit to reaching an equitable solution on the allocation of taxing rights, with market countries awarded taxing rights on at least 20% of profit exceeding a 10% margin for the largest and most profitable multinational enterprises. We will provide for appropriate coordination between the application of the new international tax rules and the removal of all Digital Services Taxes, and other relevant similar measures, on all companies. We also commit to a global minimum tax of at least 15% on a country by country basis. We agree on the importance of progressing agreement in parallel on both Pillars and look forward to reaching an agreement at the July meeting of G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors.

CLIMATE & NATURE

• Together we will work to: rally all countries to strengthen their climate ambitions; achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement; keep within reach the goal of limiting global average temperature rise to no more than 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels; and bend the curve of biodiversity loss by 2030.  We will champion the best available science – particularly reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services – and welcome global partnerships, including  the COP26 Policy Dialogue on a Transition to Sustainable Agriculture and the Agriculture Innovation Mission for Climate to increase and accelerate research and development for innovation in agricultural food systems; and support a resilient transition to decarbonised economies with quality job opportunities; and make progress on climate action in a gender responsive manner.  We underscore our commitment to achieving net zero emissions by 2050 at the latest, and call on all other countries to do likewise.  We welcome the G7’s creation of an Industrial Decarbonisation Agenda (IDA), which will help drive innovation in, and lower costs of, the decarbonisation of heavy industrial sectors around the world.   
• We are committed to achieving an ambitious outcome at COP26 and to the collective developed country goal of mobilising $100 billion annually through to 2025 from a wide variety of public and private sources in the context of meaningful mitigation actions and transparency on implementation.  We are both increasing our climate finance from 2020, including for adaptation, and are continuing to pursue additional opportunities to increase climate finance mobilisation.  We intend to provide support to countries to enable adaptation, and address the effects of climate impacts, including through finance for nature-based solutions, and by scaling up disaster risk-management, including through the Risk-Informed Early Action Partnership. We are committed to mainstreaming nature across all sectors and into economic decision-making.   We also commit to working even more closely together on forests, including through the Forest Agriculture, and Commodity Trade (FACT) Dialogue, the ocean, and finance for nature to conserve, protect and restore natural ecosystems including by championing an ambitious post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework.   
• Recognising the impact that energy has on our national security, economy, net-zero ambitions, and shared prosperity, we are launching a new ‘Strategic Energy Dialogue’, led by the U.K. Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and the U.S. Department of Energy. This dialogue aims to deepen our cooperation in areas such as the development and deployment of innovative, clean energy technologies, industrial decarbonisation, nuclear energy, energy security and resilience, joint priorities in multilateral energy forums, and shared science, research, and innovation cooperation.
• We are determined to work together to overcome the current pandemic, which has reversed progress on improving the human condition, and to be better prepared in the future.  Reflecting our shared strength in science and technology, we commit to enhancing our cooperation on tackling variants of concern and emerging infectious disease threats with pandemic or epidemic potential. This will be underpinned by collaboration between the new U.K. Health Security Agency (U.K.HSA) Centre for Pandemic Preparedness and the new U.S. National Center for Epidemic Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics.  Our collective strength in science will allow us to: scale up surveillance and genomic sequencing capacity, as well as variant assessment capabilities; adopt a One Health approach to account for animal health, and zoonotic and environmental risk; and support others without these capabilities.  We welcome the plan to establish an integrated global surveillance system – the Global Pandemic Radar – and commit to working with the WHO and other partners to take this forward. Enhancing global surveillance is critical to achieving our collective ambition to deliver safe, effective and affordable vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics within 100 days of a future pandemic threat being identified.  We are committed to working together with fellow G7 chief scientists to drive progress toward the bold 100 day ambition and report back to G7 leaders on next steps later this year.  We will strengthen collaboration on G7 action on clinical trials for vaccines and therapeutics, through more coordinated research agendas and better sharing of data and results.    
• We look forward to normalising two-way travel between our two countries.  We will establish a joint U.K.-U.S. Experts’ Working Group, which will share expertise and provide recommendations to leaders on the return of safe and sustainable international travel, demonstrating the commitment of both countries to tackle COVID-19 together.  
• We will work together to help increase global vaccine supply through investments in manufacturing of safe and effective vaccines and the materials needed to produce them.    We will promote the timely availability of vaccines, key components and equipment by encouraging bilateral trade and investment and avoiding export restrictions or other supply chain disruption. We will work together to strengthen multilateral vaccine initiatives, in particular COVAX and its partner organisations CEPI, Gavi, UNICEF and WHO. We will support resource mobilisation for partner financing needs, and work with international financial institutions to build delivery capacity in-country and develop long term, sustainable financing models to increase pandemic preparedness and response and global health security. To this end, the U.K. and U.S. will work together with likeminded countries to explore options for a new sustainable, catalytic health security financing mechanism. We will bring together government and industry to encourage further investment to tackle COVID-19 and prepare for the next health security threat, including by strengthening preparedness and resilience, increasing R&D spending, and tackling new variants. We will continue to help allies and partners accelerate implementation of, and compliance with, the International Health Regulations (IHR). To move towards this goal, we will both strive to promote and advance the Global Health Security Agenda and its bold 2024 target, including through capacity building to prevent, detect, and respond to infectious disease threats.  
• The U.K. and U.S. recognise the central importance of the WHO in global health security. The U.K. and the U.S. will work together and with like-minded Member States to implement the WHO strengthening resolution adopted at the World Health Assembly in May 2021. We will also support a timely, transparent and evidence-based independent process for the next phase of the WHO-convened COVID-19 origins study, including in China, and for investigating outbreaks of unknown origin in the future. We will take account of the recommendations of the International Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response as we work together to learn the lessons from the pandemic and strengthen future preparedness.  We commit to advancing critical areas in global health, including strengthening health systems and building regional and country capacity to better withstand future shocks; expanding the availability, accessibility, and quality of essential health services among the world’s most vulnerable, marginalized, and inadequately-served; and prioritizing maternal, neonatal and child health, nutrition, malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS.  We will also establish an institution-to-institution partnership to strengthen our approach to reducing health inequalities.   We will elevate our partnership on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights advancing our renewed commitment throughout the 76 th  United Nations General Assembly. .  We call on regional, local and national actors to support these efforts.  
• We will convene the first U.S.-U.K. Bilateral Cancer Summit and bring together researchers, patients, and other stakeholders to share ideas and identify opportunities for collaboration to accelerate advances in lifesaving approaches to cancer, which remains a leading cause of death worldwide.

COMMITMENT TO NORTHERN IRELAND

• Northern Ireland has taken huge strides forward since its courageous leaders put reconciliation and progress before violence and division 23 years ago. We are proud of the achievements of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement, and we remain fully committed to its three strand approach, that: established the democratic institutions in Northern Ireland; provided for consultation, co-operation and action across the island of Ireland; and created structures for British-Irish engagement. It took a deep partnership between the U.K., Ireland, and the U.S. to support the people of Northern Ireland in bringing the Troubles to an end, and it will take a continued and ongoing partnership to advance and safeguard Northern Ireland’s stability and prosperity into the future.  
• Today, the U.K. and U.S. reaffirm their commitment to working closely with all parties to the Agreement to protect its delicate balance and realise its vision for reconciliation, consent, equality, respect for rights, and parity of esteem. Unlocking Northern Ireland’s tremendous potential is a vital part of safeguarding the stability created by the Agreement, and the U.K. and the U.S. will continue working together towards that shared goal.

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Chinese Premier Li Qiang will meet business leaders in Western Australia on Tuesday, and is expected to visit a lithium processing plant in the resource-rich state on the last day of his four-day visit to Australia.

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UK Polls Point to 'Electoral Extinction' for Prime Minister Sunak's Conservatives

UK Polls Point to 'Electoral Extinction' for Prime Minister Sunak's Conservatives

John Whitgift Academy, Grimsby, June 12, 2024. OLI SCARFF/Pool via REUTERS

By David Milliken

LONDON (Reuters) - Three British opinion polls released late on Saturday presented a grim picture for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's Conservative Party, and one pollster warned that the party faced "electoral extinction" in July 4's election.

The polls come just over halfway through the election campaign, after a week in which both the Conservatives and Labour set out their manifestos, and shortly before voters begin to receive postal ballots.

Sunak surprised many in his own party by announcing an early election on May 22, against widespread expectations that he would wait until later in the year to allow more time for living standards to recover after the highest inflation in 40 years.

Market research company Savanta found 46% support for Keir Starmer's Labour Party, up 2 points on the previous poll five days earlier, while support for the Conservatives dropped 4 points to 21%. The poll was conducted from June 12 to June 14 for the Sunday Telegraph.

Labour's 25-point lead was the largest since the premiership of Sunak's predecessor, Liz Truss, whose tax cut plans prompted investors to dump British government bonds, pushing up interest rates and forcing a Bank of England intervention.

"Our research suggests that this election could be nothing short of electoral extinction for the Conservative Party," Chris Hopkins, political research director at Savanta, said.

A separate poll by Survation, published by the Sunday Times, predicted the Conservatives could end up with just 72 seats in the 650-member House of Commons - the lowest in their nearly 200-year history - while Labour would win 456 seats.

The poll was conducted from May 31 to June 13.

In percentage terms, the Survation poll had Labour on 40% and the Conservatives on 24%, while former Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage's Reform UK party - a right-wing challenger to the Conservatives - was on 12%.

A third poll, by Opinium for Sunday's Observer and conducted from June 12 to June 14, also showed Labour on 40%, the Conservatives on 23% and Reform on 14%, with the two largest parties yielding ground to smaller rivals.

(Reporting by David Milliken; Editing by Ros Russell)

Copyright 2024 Thomson Reuters .

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PM Modi Heads to Italy for G7 Summit in First Overseas Visit After Starting Third Term

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to visit Italy on Thursday to attend the Group of Seven (G7) Summit, marking his first international trip after beginning his third consecutive term in office. The G7 summit, taking place from June 13-14 in the Apulia region, will include participants from the seven member countries—the US, UK, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, and France—as well as the European Union. India has been invited as an Outreach Country.

Indian ambassador to Italy, Vani Rao said that PM Modi will play an important role in one of the global platforms, to engage with other world leaders present at the G7 Summit on issues of importance to India, as well as to the Global South.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni had invited PM Modi to attend the G7 Summit. It will be India's 11th participation in the G7 Summit and PM Modi's fifth consecutive participation at the G7 Summit. On the sidelines of the Summit, PM Modi is expected to hold bilateral meetings and discussions with the leaders of the G7 and Outreach nations as well as the international organisations.

Foreign Secretary Kwatra said that PM Modi is also expected to hold a bilateral meeting with his Italian counterpart Giorgia Meloni and the two leaders are expected to review the entire gamut of bilateral ties.

Addressing a special briefing, Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra said the visit assumes significance as it will be Prime Minister's first overseas travel after assuming office in his third consecutive term. "It will also afford him an opportunity to engage with other world leaders present at the G7 Summit on issues of importance to India, as also to the Global South. This will be India's 11th participation in G7 Summit and Prime Minister Modi's fifth consecutive participation at the G7 Summit," he said.

Kwatra said that the focus of the G7 Summit's Outreach Session will be on artificial intelligence, energy, Africa, and the Mediterranean. He noted that India's participation at the G7 Summit points to increasing recognition and contribution of the efforts that India has been making in trying to resolve global challenges.

“It will be a bloc agenda item where the G7 and the Outreach Countries would share their views and perspective. India's regular participation at the G7 Summit clearly points to increasing recognition and contribution of the efforts that India has been consistently making in trying to resolve global challenges, including those of peace, security, development, and environment preservation.”

"India's participation at this G7 Summit acquires particular salience in context of India's recently held, not so recent, presidency of the G20, where India took a leading role in building global consensus on a number of contentious issues. As you are also aware, India has so far organized two sessions of the Voice of the Global South Summit, which have been aimed at bringing the interests, priorities, and concerns of the Global South on the global stage. At G7 also, we have always brought the issues of Global South to the forefront," he added.

On January 1, Italy assumed the G7 Presidency for the seventh time. Notably, the G7 nations are the US, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the UK. Leaders of the seven member States, as well as the President of the European Council and the President of the European Commission representing the European Union will attend the G7 Summit. Several States, including India, Turkiye and international organisations like the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), have also been invited by Italy to the Outreach Session of the G7 Summit.

In the special briefing, Kwatra said that Italy is also India's partner in several global initiatives launched by India, including the International Solar Alliance, Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure, Indo-Pacific Ocean Initiative, Global Biofuel Alliance, and India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEEC).

On June 12, the Indian ambassador to Italy, Vani Rao said that PM Modi will play an important role in one of the global platforms, to engage with other world leaders present at the G7 Summit on issues of importance to India, as well as to the Global South.

Italy, which has invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the G7 Summit Outreach Sessions, is India's fourth-largest trading partner in the European Union, with bilateral trade currently standing at USD 15 billion. The two countries have close and friendly relations and celebrated 75 years of establishment of diplomatic relations last year.

PM Modi visited Italy for the G20 Summit in October 2021 and the Italian PM visited India on a State visit in March 2023 and was Chief Guest at Raisina Dialogue. She also visited India for the G20 Summit held under India's Presidency in September last year.

The bilateral relations between India and Italy were upgraded to the level of 'Strategic Partnership' with a focus on defence, science and technology, Indo-Pacific and energy during her visit.

There have been several high-level engagements between the two sides since the State visit of the Italian Prime Minister to India. Several ministers from Italy visited India in 2023 for G20-related meetings and held bilateral meetings on the sidelines including the Italian Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Finance, Agriculture, Education and Culture Ministers. Speaker and President of the Italian Senate and Chamber of Deputies participated in the P20 meeting last year.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal visited Italy in November, October and April last year respectively.

It is the first time that PM Modi is travelling to a European nation on his first overseas visit after assuming office. After assuming office for the first time in 2014, PM Modi made his first foreign trip to Bhutan and reaffirmed his commitment to enhance bilateral ties.

During his visit from June 15-16 in 2014, PM Modi met Bhutan King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck and Queen Jetsun Pema. He also met his Bhutanese counterpart Tshering Tobgay.

For his visit, PM Modi was accompanied by then-External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and then-Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh.

His first visit abroad came days after he was sworn in as PM in New Delhi on May 26 2014. During his visit, he addressed the Joint Sitting of the Parliament and inaugurated the new Supreme Court building which was constructed with assistance from the Government of India assistance.

After taking oath for the second time in 2019, PM Modi made his first overseas visit to Maldives. At the invitation of then-Maldives President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, PM Modi travelled to Male for a two-day State visit to Maldives from June 8-9 in 2019.

After a ceremonial welcome in Male, Solih and PM Modi held one-on-one talks followed by delegation-level talks, according to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) release.

The two leaders had reiterated their strong commitment to further strengthening "strong and friendly relations" between India and the Maldives, nurtured by geographical contiguity, and ethnic, historical, socio-economic and cultural ties between the peoples of the two countries, according to MEA release.

He also delivered the address in the Maldivian Parliament. PM Modi spoke about India's 'Neighbourhood First' policy and called the Maldives a priority for India in the neighbourhood. He had also announced that India will contribute to the conservation of Maldives' Friday Mosque.

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UK minister's visit to Canada and US will boost long-standing ties with key allies

Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Americas and Caribbean, David Rutley is on a four-day visit to Ottawa, Louisiana and Texas.

• strengthening security and economic ties with key allies will be focus for Americas Minister on trip to Ottawa, Louisiana and Texas
• David Rutley will meet with key federal and provincial leaders to boost UK-Canadian collaboration on global security issues
• with more than $1 trillion invested in each other’s economies, visit will build on UK-US relationships that create thousands of jobs on both sides of the Atlantic

Deepening security ties with two of the UK’s closest allies and strengthening economic links that support jobs on both sides of the Atlantic will be the focus for the Americas Minister as he begins a four-day visit to Canada and the US today (Monday 18 September).

In his second visit in the role to Canada, David Rutley will meet with federal and provincial leaders over two days in the Canadian capital, including Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs Rob Oliphant to discuss UK-Canadian collaboration on global security issues.

The UK and Canada share a unique intelligence and security relationship and Minister Rutley will discuss coordination on sanctions against Russia and encourage international cooperation and support for Ukraine to ensure they win the fight against Putin’s illegal invasion.

A two-day trip to Texas and Louisiana will follow when Minister Rutley continues a programme of visits to states across the US. He will champion the UK as a great investment and business partner and highlight the unrivalled security and defence ties between the two countries.

The UK and US already have more than $1 trillion invested in each other’s economies and the UK supports more jobs in America than any other country, with more than 110,000 Texans and almost 16,000 Louisianans working for British businesses.

Economic growth and the creation of better paid jobs is among the five priorities set out by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Minister Rutley will discuss with political and business leaders how the UK and US can boost cooperation in key sectors to deliver partnerships through the Atlantic Declaration, make their economies more resilient and create jobs.

Minister for the Americas and Caribbean David Rutley said:

There are few relationships that match the closeness of those that the UK shares with the USA and Canada and I am looking forward to boosting our deep and long-standing ties during my latest visit to North America.

During his time in Texas and Louisiana, Minister Rutley will travel to Baton Rouge, New Orleans and Austin where he will hold bilateral meetings with leading state-level political and business figures.

In Ottawa, Minister Rutley will also meet with Canadian students who are joining the Chevening Scholarship programme and will shortly be travelling to continue their studies at UK universities and build lifelong bonds with the UK.

Further information

• Canada and the UK share a unique partnership as the only countries that are members of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance, the Commonwealth, NATO and the G7
• the Chevening Scholarship scheme is in its 40th year and the 2023 cohort will join a global network of more than 55,000 Chevening alumni when they complete their studies at UK universities
• the UK was the 7th largest export market for Texas in 2019, with $16.4 billion of exports to the UK in 2022. Texas had $5.4 billion of imports from the UK in 2022
• the UK was the 5th largest export market for Louisiana in 2019, with more than $7 billion of goods exported to the UK in 2022. Louisiana had more than $800 million worth of imports from the UK in 2022
• more than 110,000 Texans and almost 16,000 Louisianans go to work each day in jobs supported by UK companies
• the Atlantic Declaration is a first-of-a kind economic partnership which will see the UK and US work together more closely than ever before across the full spectrum of economic, technological, commercial and trade relations.

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Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu is set to address the US Congress on July 24

FILE - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chairs a cabinet meeting at the Kirya military base, which houses the Israeli Ministry of Defense, in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Dec. 24, 2023. Top U.S. leaders have invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to deliver an address to Congress. The visit would provide a show of wartime support for the longtime ally despite mounting political divisions over Israel’s military assault on Gaza. The invitation from House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, and the other leaders has been in the works for some time. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg, Pool, File)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chairs a Cabinet meeting at the Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem on Wednesday, June 5, 2024. (Gil Cohen-Magen/Pool Photo via AP)

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to address a joint meeting of Congress on July 24, setting the stage for what is expected to be a contentious speech at a crucial moment for the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

Congressional leaders confirmed the date of the address late Thursday after formally inviting Netanyahu to come speak before lawmakers last week. It is the most recent show of wartime support for the longtime ally despite mounting political divisions over Israel’s military assault on Hamas in Gaza.

“The existential challenges we face, including the growing partnership between Iran, Russia, and China, threaten the security, peace, and prosperity of our countries and of free people around the world,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, along with Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, said in the letter. “To build on our enduring relationship and to highlight America’s solidarity with Israel, we invite you to share the Israeli government’s vision for defending democracy, combatting terror, and establishing a just and lasting peace in the region.”

Netanyahu’s appearance before a growingly divided Congress is sure to be controversial and met with plenty of protests both inside the Capitol from lawmakers and outside by pro-Palestinian protesters. And it will put on stark display the growing election-year divisions among Democrats over the prime minister’s prosecution of the monthslong war against Hamas.

Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in the U.S. — who delivered a stinging rebuke of Netanyahu in March — said in a separate statement Thursday night that he has “clear and profound disagreements” with the Israeli leader but joined in the request for him to speak “because America’s relationship with Israel is ironclad and transcends one person or prime minister.”

Other Democratic lawmakers more critical of Netanyahu’s strategy are expected to be no-shows for the address. Sen. Bernie Sanders, the independent from Vermont, said: “Netanyahu is a war criminal. I certainly will not attend.”

Netanyahu’s visit to the Capitol also comes as the relationship between President Joe Biden and the leader of the Jewish state has increasingly frayed in recent months. Biden has privately and publicly criticized Netanyahu’s handling of the war and criticized the Israeli government for not letting more humanitarian aid into Gaza.

Late last week, Biden announced a proposed agreement to end the fighting in Gaza, putting growing pressure on Netanyahu to accept the deal. Many Israelis have been urging him to embrace the terms, but his far-right allies have threatened to leave his coalition government if he does.

That could expose Netanyahu to new elections, scrutiny over security failures that led to the war and, if he loses the prime minister post, prosecution on longstanding corruption charges.

The first phase of the deal described by Biden would last for six weeks and include a “full and complete cease-fire,” a withdrawal of Israeli forces from all densely populated areas of Gaza and the release of a number of hostages, including women, older people and the wounded, in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.

The second phase would include the release of all remaining living hostages, including male soldiers, and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza. The third phase calls for the start of a major reconstruction of Gaza, which faces decades of rebuilding from the war’s devastation.

Netanyahu has repeatedly called a permanent cease-fire in Gaza a “nonstarter” until long-standing conditions for ending the war are met, appearing to undermine the proposal that Biden described as an Israeli one.

A number of Democratic lawmakers who have been supportive of Israel since the start of the war have said their attendance at Netanyahu’s address will be dependent on his decision to accept the peace deal at hand.

Johnson first suggested inviting the Israeli leader, saying it would be “a great honor of mine” to invite him. In the press release Thursday, Johnson said Netanyahu responded to the invitation in kind.

“I am very moved to have the privilege of representing Israel before both Houses of Congress and to present the truth about our just war against those who seek to destroy us to the representatives of the American people and the entire world,” Netanyahu said, according to the release.