President Joe Biden will host United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer at the White House on Wednesday. Starmer’s first visit to the White House as Prime Minister comes after the Labour Party was victorious in last Thursday’s election, earning a 170-seat majority in the House of Commons.
“On July 10, President Joseph R. Biden Jr. will host Prime Minister Keir Starmer of the United Kingdom for a bilateral meeting at the White House. President Biden looks forward to his first meeting with Prime Minister Starmer and will underscore the importance of continuing to strengthen the special relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom,” read a release from the White House.
“The leaders will have the opportunity to discuss in depth U.S.-UK cooperation across a range of issues, including support to Ukraine, advancing a free and open Indo-Pacific, reaching a ceasefire and hostage release deal in Gaza, ensuring that Iran can never obtain a nuclear weapon, and strengthening the coalition to confront Iranian-backed Houthi threats to commercial shipping,” the release read.
The meeting comes during a busy week in Washington, D.C., with the nation’s capital hosting the NATO Summit from July 9 to 11. Over 30 leaders of NATO countries are commemorating the 75th anniversary of the alliance organization. Starmer will also be in attendance for the Summit, as the United Kingdom is an integral part of NATO. Leaders are expected to discuss the “challenges facing the Alliance” and ways to “further strengthen NATO’s deterrence and defense.”
“The leaders will also discuss furthering our bilateral cooperation in areas such as protecting advanced technologies and developing climate and clean energy solutions,” according to the release from the White House. “President Biden looks forward to welcoming Prime Minister Starmer to Washington, D.C. for NATO’s 75th anniversary and their bilateral meeting.”
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The meeting with Starmer also comes amid rumors that Biden is fighting for his political life. Calls for Biden to step down as the Democratic nominee for the 2024 presidential election have plagued the president’s administration in the days since the first presidential debate between Biden and former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee. Many congressional Democrats have sought Biden to step aside so the Democratic Party could run a different candidate in the election.
So far, Biden has ignored those calls and declared that he will remain in the election, telling Democrats that he was “running this race to the end.”
