President Biden and Prime Minister Johnson had an extremely short photocall before their bilateral meeting at which little was said but a lot was implied.
Sitting briefly before U.S. and UK flags at Carbis Bay, Cornwall, after taking a walk to appreciate the scenery with their wives, G7 host Boris Johnson faced the cameras with President Joe Biden before the two men entered bilateral talks on Thursday.
Handed a small notebook with loose notes inside as he sat, President Biden did not say much other than to note while he had visited the United Kingdom before, this was his first visit as President. Indeed, the G7 summit is Biden’s first foreign trip as President and today is his first visit with a foreign leader.
Biden also complimented Prime Minister Johnson on his wife, who he married in a secret ceremony last month, remarking that the two men had something in common in that they “both married way above our station”.
Mr Johnson seemed slightly flummoxed by the remark, and stumbling replied in words that may yet come to define his relationship with President Biden: “I’m not going to dissent from that. I’m not going to disagree with the President on that, or indeed on anything else, it is highly likely”.
The Prime Minister attempted to follow up the remark but was drowned out by shouting reporters.
While much has been made in the media of the distance between the two men — Biden once even went so far as to say Johnson was a “physical and emotional clone” of Trump — in fact, the Conservative and Democrat have much in common, not least their aligned views on globalisation, mass migration, and coronavirus policies.
Once the bilateral U.S.-UK talks complete, President Biden will return to his accommodation in St Ives, Cornwall, before returning to Carbis Bay again tomorrow for the start of the G7 summit.
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