Britain’s king Charles and queen Camilla were greeted with a red-carpet ceremony on Monday afternoon as the royal couple began a four-day visit to the United States to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
The royal couple walked through an honour cordon made up of US military personnel before heading to the White House to kick off two days in Washington, DC.
The king, dressed in a blue suit, and queen, wearing a pink coat dress, listened as the US military band played the national anthems of both Britain and the United States.
For Charles, the trip is his first visit to the former colonies as Britain’s monarch and comes at a fraught time for the relationship between the governments of the two countries. US president Donald Trump has repeatedly belittled Britain’s prime minister Keir Starmer for refusing to join the war in Iran.
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The royal couple began planning for their US trip months before the current conflict between Trump and Starmer. British officials and representatives of Buckingham Palace have repeatedly said the king does not get involved in day-to-day politics or foreign policy.
But privately, officials have said they are hopeful that the king’s visit might soothe tensions between the president and the prime minister.
At the White House on Monday afternoon, the royal couple will have a short visit with the president and first lady Melania Trump. Following that, they will head to a garden party at the British embassy in Washington.
A private meeting between the president and the king will take place on Tuesday before the king delivers an address to a joint session of Congress. Trump will host a state banquet for the royal couple on Tuesday evening.
[ Starmer needs King Charles to deliver after US-UK Iran schismOpens in new window ]
The start of the historic trip has been overshadowed by the attempted assassination of Trump on Saturday night at a Washington media dinner when he was surrounded by secret service agents and bundled from the room.
Charles privately contacted the president and his wife to express his and Camilla’s sympathies with all those affected on the night, and their gratitude to the security services who prevented further injury.
Trump wanted the first inward state visit of his second term in office to be from the UK, a reflection of the Anglophile nature of his administration and his family ties to the UK.
The queen arrived in Washington for the much-anticipated visit wearing a symbol of Anglo-American unity – jewellery featuring the stars and stripes crossed with the union flag.
Camilla, dressed in a pink Dior coat dress, was wearing a brooch presented to Queen Elizabeth during her 1957 state visit to the US on behalf of New York during a civic lunch hosted by the city’s then mayor Robert F Wagner.
– New York Times, PA
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