King Charles III welcomed U.S. President Joe Biden at Windsor Castle today. This was the first time the two had seen each other since before the monarch’s coronation.
Photos of the men’s greeting show them sharing a long handshake while chatting and smiling. At one point, Biden put his arm on the king’s, while still shaking the monarch’s hand with the other. Charles seemed to take no issue with the apparent break in royal protocol, and the two walked side by side into the castle with the U.S. national anthem playing in the background.
The Guard of Honour formed of the Prince of Wales’s company of the Welsh Guards got in formation ahead of the meeting.
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During Biden’s London visit, the leaders hope to strengthen their relationship and discuss world issues, including the climate crisis.
Today, the president is set to join the king for tea in Windsor Castle, after which Charles will invite Biden to view an exhibition in the White Drawing Room of items from the Royal Collection relating to the United States.
The king and the president will also join participants in the Climate Finance Mobilisation Forum in the Green Drawing Room. 'The forum will bring together finance and philanthropic leaders from the United Kingdom and the U.S. to strengthen their commitments to climate action within emerging markets and developing economies. The king and the president will be briefed on the conclusions of the discussions,' Buckingham Palace said in a statement.
Though Biden was not able to attend King Charles’s coronation in May (First Lady Jill Biden and granddaughter Finnegan Biden attended in his place), he has met the monarch various times before and after Charles’s mother Queen Elizabeth II’s passing in September of last year.
The two met at the G7 Leaders Summit in Cornwall in June 2021, and at COP26 in Glasgow in November 2021. Biden, accompanied by the first lady, also attended the Heads of State Reception at Buckingham Palace on the eve of the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth, and the service at Westminster Abbey on September 19, 2022.
Rosa Sanchez is the senior news editor at Harper's Bazaar, working on news as it relates to entertainment, fashion, and culture. Previously, she was a news editor at ABC News and, prior to that, a managing editor of celebrity news at American Media. She has also written features for Rolling Stone, Teen Vogue, Forbes, and The Hollywood Reporter, among other outlets.
