Biden, 13th US Prez set to meet queen
Queen Elizabeth II has met nearly every US prez since Dwight Eisenhower
London, June 11: Imagine trying to make an impression on someone who’s met, well, almost everyone.
Such is the challenge for President Joe Biden, who is set to sip tea with Queen Elizabeth II on Sunday at Windsor Castle after a Group of Seven leaders’ summit in southwestern England.
Biden will be the 13th president to sit with the now-95-year-old monarch. The White House said he previously met the queen in 1982, when he was a U.S. senator.
Before the two meet again, the leaders are to attend a reception Friday with the queen, her son Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, and Charles’ son Prince William and his wife, Kate.
The queen has met every American president since Dwight Eisenhower during her nearly 70-year reign, except for Lyndon Johnson, who didn’t visit Britain while he was in office.
She was a 25-year-old princess when she came to Washington in 1951 and stayed with President Harry S. Truman and his family at Blair House, where Truman lived while the White House underwent a major renovation. She met Herbert Hoover in 1957, more than 20 years after he left office.
Her personal ties to U.S. leaders underscore the importance of the United States to the United Kingdom and to the queen.
She came of age during World War II and understands the central role the trans-Atlantic alliance has played in modern British history, said Robert Hardman, author of “Queen of the World,” which examines her role representing Britain on the world stage.
“She grew up with that sort of sense of the USA is almost a sort of salvation that came along and rescued Europe in the darkest days of the war,” Hardman said. —