Ukraine and the environment will top the agenda when Biden meets UK politicians and royalty

LONDON —

A dash of pomp and a dose of politics are on the agenda during a stopover visit to the U.K. where President Joe Biden will discuss the environment with King Charles III and the war in Ukraine with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

Biden flies to London on Sunday on his way to a NATO summit in Lithuania. He is scheduled to hold talks with Sunak at 10 Downing St. on Monday before heading to Windsor Castle to meet Charles for the first time since the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II in September.

Though this is not a full state visit with military honors and palace banquet, the royal imprimatur and backdrop of the 1,000-year-old castle help underscore the importance of the trans-Atlantic “special relationship” — tested by Brexit but reinforced by unity over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Sunak and the president will hold Ukraine-focused talks before both attend this week’s NATO meeting in Vilnius, which will discuss how far the military alliance should open the door to Ukraine. NATO leaders said in 2008 that Ukraine would eventually become a member, but have not set out a road map, despite impassioned entreaties from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

“That is an area where the U.S. is a little bit more hesitant than a lot of other NATO allies,” said Julie Norman, co-director of the Centre on U.S. Politics at University College London. “There might be some closed-door discussions about where the U.K. is on that before going into the whole (NATO) meeting.”

The U.S. and the U.K. are among the strongest Western supporters of Kyiv. Norman said that “if anything, the U.K. has taken a bit of a lead on some of the military commitments,” nudging the Biden administration to go further on issues including tanks and an international effort to give Ukraine F-16 fighter jets.