WASHINGTON – Joe Biden embarks Wednesday on his first foreign trip as president, an eight-day swing across Europe that will give him a chance to shore up frayed alliances with U.S. allies and meet face to face with Russian President Vladimir Putin amid rising tensions with Moscow.
He’ll also get to enjoy one of the perks of the presidency: a visit with Queen Elizabeth II.
Biden, who has been on the world stage for nearly five decades as senator, vice president and now president, has hosted the leaders of Japan and South Korea at the White House since taking office Jan. 20 but held off on traveling abroad because of concerns about the coronavirus pandemic.
The pandemic is still entrenched in much of the world, but Biden will arrive in the United Kingdom as the European Union reopens its borders to vaccinated tourists, including Americans.
Biden to confer with Europe allies, confront Putin
Joe Biden is heading to Europe for his first international trip as president to strategize with G7 democracies and other NATO allies before confronting Russian President Vladimir Putin about global issues during a meeting in Geneva. (June 7)
AP
The focal point of Biden’s visit will be the Group of Seven summit, or G-7, which opens Friday in Carbis Bay, a seaside resort in Cornwall in southwest England. The summit is the first gathering of leaders of the world’s largest economies in nearly two years and the first of the post-Donald Trump era. Trump feuded with several of the group’s…
