Biden reveals Queen asked about Putin and Xi
during tea at Windsor Castle
US president gives insight into his discussions with
monarch in short visit after G7 summit in Cornwall
.
Dan Sabbagh
and Steven Morris
Sun 13 Jun
2021 18.47 BST
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jun/13/queen-hosts-joe-biden-for-tea-at-windsor-castle
Joe Biden
revealed the Queen had asked him about his Russian and Chinese counterparts,
Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, during their 45-minute talk over tea at Windsor
Castle, in the aftermath of the G7 summit on Sunday.
It was an
exceptionally rare, if limited, insight into political discussions involving
the British monarch: the contents of her regular weekly audiences with the
British prime minister of the day are kept confidential.
But the US
president, the most powerful politician in the western world, gave a brief
taste of their meeting to White House reporters on the tarmac at Heathrow
airport on Sunday evening, before flying out to his next stop, Brussels.
“We had a
long talk, she was very generous. I don’t think she’d be insulted, but she
reminded me of my mother. In terms of the look of her and just the generosity,”
Biden, 78, said of the Queen, 95.
Those who
speak to the Queen on other occasions are also not supposed to reveal what she
has said to avoid embarrassing her, because, as head of state, the monarch does
not publicly comment on political matters.
In 2012,
the BBC was forced to apologise after its security correspondent, Frank
Gardner, revealed on Radio 4 that the Queen had told him she was aghast that
Abu Hamza could not be arrested during the period when he aired vehemently
anti-British views as imam of Finsbury Park mosque in north London.
Biden also
said he had invited the Queen to the White House, which she first visited in
October 1957 on a four-day stay when Dwight Eisenhower was president. That was
not her first meeting with a US president: as a princess she met with Harry
Truman in 1951.
Biden,
accompanied by his wife, Jill, was the 13th holder of the office to have met
Elizabeth II. His meeting in the castle in Berkshire came after he inspected a
ceremonial guard of honour in the building’s central quadrangle.
No details
of their discussion was disclosed by the palace, although a picture was taken
of the Queen and her visitors in the castle’s Grand Corridor, featuring a
diminutive monarch dressed in pink flanked by somewhat taller visitors.
Earlier, PA
Media reported a snippet of overheard conversation, as the official party
headed inside to the castle. The Queen said to the president: “You completed
your talks.” Biden replied: “Yes we did.”
The
president had flown up from Cornwall on the Marine One presidential helicopter,
arriving at Windsor in a black Range Rover, where he was greeted by the Queen,
who was standing alone, two months after the death of her husband, Prince
Philip.
Clearly at
ease with each other, Biden then inspected the troops on his own, so preventing
a repeat of Donald Trump’s faux pas where the former president walked in front
of the Queen on his own visit to Windsor in 2018.
The Queen
has met every US president since visiting Truman, with the exception of Lyndon
Johnson in the 60s. The first US president to visit Windsor was Ronald Reagan,
who rode on horseback with the monarch in 1982.
During the
G7 summit, the royal family has taken a particularly active role, with the
Queen hosting a reception for Biden and other G7 leaders at the Eden Project in
Cornwall, also attended by Prince Charles, and his wife, Camilla, the Duchess
of Cornwall, and Prince William and wife, Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge.
Earlier,
the president was 15 minutes late for a 9am mass at the Sacred Heart and St Ia
Catholic church as his cavalcade negotiated the twisting streets of St Ives in
Cornwall.
Parishioner
Ann Buckley: said: “It was an ordinary mass. He didn’t arrive on time. He
missed father’s sermon. Father didn’t wait for him. He has another mass in
Penzance to get to.”
Her
brother, Martin, was disappointed that Boris Johnson had not visited too.
“Boris gets married in Westminster Cathedral but doesn’t come here. What a
golden opportunity and he didn’t come.”
Father
Philip Dyson said he had not been given advance warning that the president and
his wife would be joining them for the service and admitted he was slightly nervous
while conducting the service.
“I welcomed
him to Cornwall and he said he was enjoying his time here and there were many
serious matters they were discussing and just hope it’s going to come to
fruition.
“I think
the G7 has been such a great occasion. The scripture readings were appropriate
because it was about creation and climate, and things growing, so it absolutely
suited the occasion.”
He added
that the scriptures were not selected “by choice”, adding: “It’s just the way
it always is. The word of God always fits in.”
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