Biden and Boris Johnson to meet ahead of G7 summit

President Joe Biden will hold his first face-to-face meeting with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson next week when the two leaders sit down ahead of the G7 meeting.

Biden and Johnson will on Thursday ahead of the gathering of world leaders in Cornwall as the president embarks on a seven-day trip to Europe, the White House announced. 

It’s Biden’s first international trip as president and he’s crammed in a packed schedule: the G7 meeting, a NATO meeting, an EU summit and a sit down with Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

Biden held off on foreign travel due to the coronavirus pandemic but is making up for it with this trip that includes meetings with foreign leaders, Queen Elizabeth II, the king of Belgium, and his Russian counterpart. 

First lady Jill Biden will join him for the British portion of the trip but will return to the United States after the first couple meets with the Queen at Windsor Castle next Sunday.

Biden will be the 13th American president the Queen has met since ascending to the throne in 1953. 

There is speculation that the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall will also meet the American couple at some point during their visit to the UK. 

At his sit down with Johnson, Biden will ‘affirm the enduring strength of the special relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom,’ White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement.

Biden and Johnson have spoken on the phone multiple times since Biden was elected president.

Johnson will also asked the American president to exempt vaccinated British and American travellers from quarantine restrictions to facilitate travel between the two nations. 

The PM wants to create a ‘green channel’ for those fully vaccinated, The Times reported, as the summer holiday season approaches.

Afterward their meeting, Biden will attend the G7 summit, where he will  hold bilateral meetings with fellow G7 leaders. The G7 includes Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union.  

After his meeting with The Queen, Biden will travel to Brussels, Belgium, to participate in in a NATO meeting and an EU Summit.

President Joe Biden will hold his first face-to-face meeting with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Thursday, June 10

First lady Jill Biden will join President Biden when he meets with The Queen at Windsor Castle on Sunday, June 13

The Carbis Bay Hotel in Cornwall still ‘looks like a building site’ with just weeks before it hosts the G7 summit

The hotel – where US President Joe Biden and Boris Johnson will be staying – is littered with construction materials

There, the president will discuss transatlantic security and the collective defense of Europe. 

He will also meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Biden also will participate in the U.S.–EU Summit while in Brussels. That meeting with focus on global health and the world economy. Leaders will discuss climate change, trade, and democracy.

President Biden will also meet with His Majesty King Philippe of Belgium and Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo.

Then Biden travels to Geneva for his sit down with Putin on June 16. He will also meet with Swiss President Guy Parmelin and Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis. 

Biden on Wednesday did not rule out retaliation against Russian President Vladimir Putin for a series of cyber attacks on American companies. 

‘We’re looking closely at that issue,’ Biden said when asked if he would retaliate for the latest ransomware attack, which was against JBS Foods. 

But he dismissed concerns he was being tested by his Russian counterpart. 

‘No,’ he said when asked if he thought Putin was testing him. 

The two leaders will meet in Geneva, Switzerland on June 16 for their first sit down amid rising tensions between the two nations. 

White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Wednesday the cyber attacks on US companies, believed to be done by hackers in Russia but not in conjunction with that government, will be on the summit agenda.

‘President Biden certainly thinks that President Putin and the Russian government has a role to play in stopping and preventing these attacks hence it will be a topic of discussion when they meet in two weeks,’ she said. 

The agenda is filling up rapidly. Also likely to come up: Russian interference in US elections; Moscow’s aggressive posture toward the Ukraine and the treatment of dissent Alexei Navalny. 

President Joe Biden did not rule out retaliation against Russian President Vladimir Putin for a series of cyber attacks on American companies

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There have been multiple attacks on US companies by Russian hackers, including the Solar Winds hack last year, the hack of the Colonial Pipeline that caused gas prices to spike, and the attack on JBS Foods, the world’s largest meat processing company

‘We’re not taking anything off the table in terms of how we may respond,’ Psaki said without getting into specifics.

‘I will say that this attack is a reminder about the importance to private sector entities of hardening, their cybersecurity, and ensuring they take the necessary steps to prepare for this threat, which we’ve seen rising even over the last few week,’ she said.