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Joe Biden on Monday described the UK-US relationship as “rock stable” at talks in Downing Road with Rishi Sunak, regardless of variations rising between the 2 sides forward of this week’s Nato summit.

The US president’s determination to ship cluster munitions to Kyiv is at odds with Britain’s opposition to their use, and Quantity 10 mentioned the UK prime minister had “discouraged” their deployment throughout talks in London.

Downing Road mentioned Britain, as a signatory to a conference banning cluster weapons, was obliged to “discourage” their use by non-signatories, however privately British officers mentioned talks on the difficulty have been amicable.

In the meantime, the US and Germany are under intense pressure from different allies to indicate better assist for Ukraine’s eventual membership of Nato.

Washington and Berlin have backed a type of phrases for the summit’s concluding assertion that doesn’t totally endorse a “pathway” to membership of the safety alliance, not to mention invite Kyiv to hitch as soon as the warfare is over — as demanded by Ukraine’s staunchest supporters in japanese Europe.

Downing Road mentioned Sunak believed Ukraine’s “rightful place is in Nato” and that it was working with allies to create a “pathway” for it to hitch, whereas recognising Kyiv couldn’t accede whereas the warfare with Russia was ongoing.

Nonetheless, Quantity 10 insisted that there was no distinction in strategy to the difficulty between the US and UK. Referring to reviews of a break up, a spokesperson for Sunak mentioned: “I don’t imagine that’s correct.”

Throughout his assembly within the Downing Road backyard with Sunak, Biden mentioned he “couldn’t be assembly with a better pal and better ally”.

Each leaders harassed a standard willpower to hold on arming Ukraine in its warfare in opposition to Russia; the UK and US are the 2 largest donors to Kyiv’s army operations.

Biden arrived at Stansted airport close to London on Sunday night time and met each Sunak and King Charles throughout his brief go to earlier than heading to the Nato summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, in a while Monday.

British officers privately admitted that Biden’s foremost purpose for stopping over in Britain was to satisfy the monarch at Windsor Citadel, affording a photograph alternative historically beloved of US presidents.

Biden didn’t attend the King’s coronation this yr — US presidents don’t normally attend such occasions — and mentioned local weather change with the monarch over tea. He was greeted by the band of the Welsh Guards.

Biden’s go to got here little greater than a month after Sunak met him on the White Home and marked their fifth assembly in 5 months. “We coated a lot of the floor we wanted to cowl in Washington,” mentioned one UK official.

Sunak and Biden additionally briefly mentioned the Northern Eire peace course of after Brexit and the current settlement to reform post-Brexit buying and selling guidelines for the area, the so-called Windsor framework.

Britain and the US are usually aligned on international coverage and not too long ago concluded the Aukus defence pact with Australia in a push to counter China’s rising army would possibly.

Final week, Karine Jean-Pierre, White Home press secretary, disregarded criticism that Biden had not attended King Charles’s coronation in Could. “He had a name with the King and congratulated him,” she mentioned.