Biden Begins First International Trip With G7 Summit Meeting With Boris Johnson

President Joe Biden has landed in the United Kingdom on Wednesday for his first international trip since taking office.

Biden will begin his meetings in the seaside town of Cornwall for the G7 Summit. G7 is an informal committee of the democratic nations of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States. It is expected that vaccine supplies and building infrastructure will be the main topics of discussion. Biden met personally with Prime Minister Boris Johnson to renew the “special relationship” between the U.S. and the U.K. and discuss lifting travel restrictions between both nations.

After the G7 Summit, Biden and First Lady Jill Biden will meet with Queen Elizabeth at Windsor Castle for tea. Biden has met the Queen before, in 1982, when he was the U.S. senator.

From there Biden will travel to Brussels for talks with the leaders of NATO and the European Union. The main topics will be Russia, China, and getting NATO nations to contribute more to the common defense – a similar topic that Trump garnered attention for on his trip abroad.

Biden will end his trip in Geneva with a meeting with Russian President Vladamir Putin. This is thought to be the most difficult meeting of the week especially with recent events including the cybersecurity attacks from several Russian-based ransomware gangs on U.S. food producers and oil suppliers.

Biden has been near the head of U.S. foreign policy for the majority of his political life. First as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and later as Vice President, where he was given a strong hand over Obama-era foreign policy.

The president has been a proponent of the idea that the middle class should be at the heart of a stable democracy and is thought to carry this message to foreign leaders during his time abroad. Biden has recognized the importance of returning to the global stage and fixing the United States’ relationship with the world, especially after a global pandemic.