Biden and Boris love fest as leaders put aside their Northern Ireland spat 

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President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Boris Johnson downplayed their differences and emphasized the ‘special relationship’ between their two nations on Thursday after their first face-to-face meeting.

‘We had a good first full day in the UK. Prime Minister Johnson and I had a very productive meeting,’ Biden said. ‘We affirmed the special relationship — it’s not said lightly — the special relationship between our people.’

Biden gave Johnson a new bike and helmet, according to British reports.  

And Johnson called his American counterpart a ‘breath of fresh air.’ 

‘The talks were great. They went on for a long time. We covered a huge range of subjects. It’s wonderful to listen to the Biden administration and Joe Biden because there’s so much they want to do together with us,’ the prime minister told the BBC.

‘It’s fantastic. It’s a breath of fresh air,’ he said of the American president.

The love fest came after Biden and Johnson, along with their wives Jill and Carrie, held a picturesque photo-op by the ocean amid a transatlantic row between the two nations over Northern Ireland.

Johnson down played a report that the US was unhappy with his government’s handling of Northern Ireland during Brexit talks with the European Union. 

‘There’s complete harmony on the need to keep going, to find solutions and make sure we uphold the Belfast/Good Friday agreement,’ he said.

At their meeting, the two leaders downplayed tensions between their nations and joked about their personal lives.

Sitting next to the prime minister on Thursday afternoon, Biden recycled one of his favorite lines, saying the two men had something in common – both married above their station.  Boris, 56, and Carrie Johnson, 33, married on May 29.

‘I’m thrilled to meet your wife. I told the prime minister we have something in common: we both married above our station,’ Biden, 78, said. 

‘I’m not going to disagree with the president there,’ Johnson responded. 

‘Or indeed on anything else. I think it highly likely,’ he added, in what was interpreted as a sly reference to the Northern Ireland issue.

The two couples met on a scenic deck overlooking St Ives Bay, England, a view of the Atlantic Ocean in front of them.

‘It gorgeous. I don’t want to go home,’ Biden said.

Ahead of the meeting, officials tried to down play reports of a strain between Biden and Johnson after a report the president ordered the rebuke of the prime minister. The White House called the report ‘wrong’ and emphasized the special relationship between the two nations.

First lady Jill Biden, 70, was on message for the meet-and-greet, wearing a blazer with the word ‘love’ on the back.

‘I think that we’re bringing love from America. This is a global conference and we are trying to bring unity across the globe and I think it’s needed right bow, that people feel a sense of unity from all the countries and feel a sense hope after this year of the pandemic,’ she said.

After the picturesque greeting, Biden and Johnson split off to view the 1941 Atlantic Charter – they signed a new version at their sit down – and then began their 90 minute meeting. The ‘special relationship’ between the US and the UK began during the dark days of World War II.

Jill Biden told reporters the president had been ‘studying for weeks’ ahead of his first foreign trip. ‘I think he’s so well prepared. He’s been studying for weeks, working up to today. Of course he knows most of the leaders that‘ll be here. Joe loves foreign policy. This is his forte,’ she said.

While the president and prime minister met, Jill Biden, wearing a custom Brandon Maxwell dress,  and Carrie Johnson, in a red LK Bennett gown, took baby Wilfred to the beach for a stroll and dip in the water.  Downing Street released photos of the event and Wilfred’s face was not visible in the pictures.

The flurry of friendly photo-ops and joking repartee gave the message loud and clear: the US-UK special relationship is strong and there is no dissension here.  

The face-to-face meeting came after White House backed down following a report Biden rebuked Johnson for ‘inflaming tensions’ in Northern Ireland.

Officials tried to put out the diplomatic fire amid personal professional differences between the two leaders. 

The flames were fanned when The Times UK reported that Biden ordered US officials to give Johnson an extraordinary diplomatic rebuke for putting the Northern Ireland peace process at risk over Brexit negotiations with the European Union. 

Biden officials quickly denied the report ahead of the bilateral talks between the two leaders.

President Biden will not get ‘controversial or adversarial’ when he speaks to Johnson about Northern Ireland.

‘It will not be controversial or adversarial,’ a senior administration official told reporters on a briefing call ahead of the leaders’ sit down. ‘He didn’t come here to give a lecture.’

Biden will say to Johnson ‘what he has said publicly for a long time now,’ the official noted. 

‘He believes that the Good Friday agreement is the foundation for peace and reconciliation in Northern Ireland,’ the official said, adding that ‘the current discussions between the UK and EU should continue the vitality of Good Friday agreement.’

And officials were quick to blast The Times report, calling it incorrect. 

‘This is wrong,’ a senior administration official said. 

‘First this discussion wasn’t directed by the president. It was not heightened. As with any ally we have diplomatic conversations about areas where we have concern at many levels,’ the official added.   

According to the report, the US issued a ‘demarche’ to Britain, an official diplomatic censure not normally used against allies, especially those as close as the two nations. 

The United States was said to have ‘strongly urged’ Britain to ‘stay cool’ and reach an agreement, even if that meant making ‘unpopular compromises’. 

The report prompted a massive backlash in the UK as Biden arrived in Cornwall for his meeting with Johnson ahead of the G7 summit. The president is proud of his Irish roots and refers to them often in speeches. 

After Brexit, a new agreement was needed for the border between Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom, and Ireland, which is part of the European Union, because the EU requires certain goods to be inspected and others not to be admitted at all.  

There is a June 30 deadline breathing down the neck of both sides as negotiations over goods – including things like sausages – get contentious.

A spokesman for Number 10 Downing Street refused to be drawn on the White House criticism.  

‘I don’t think you would expect me to get into discussions with other countries but I think we have been clear that we need to urgently find solutions that support the Belfast Good Friday Agreement and minimise disruption to communities in Northern Ireland, particularly to avoid disruption to critical supplies such as medicines,’ he said.

‘That is why we have been and continue to work closely with the EU to try to find pragmatic solutions that achieve those objectives.’

The White House interference is not likely to be welcomed by the British and the row seems certain to overshadow the talks between Biden and Johnson.

It also highlights the fundamental political differences between the two leaders.

Biden, the former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee who takes pride in his expertise in global affairs, was a staunch opponent of Brexit, the movement Johnson championed. 

And Biden once called a Johnson a ‘physical and emotional clone’ of Donald Trump. 

Plans for their first meeting got off to a rocky start when Biden’s team was forced to ground Marine One because of the rain and fog. The pair were supposed to hold talks of the St. Michael’s Mount island near St. Ives, but had to move the trip onto the mainland because of the weather.

Biden will now be travelling in a smaller presidential motorcade because his normal mode of transport on roads, The Beast, is too big to fit down country lanes in Cornwall.

Johnson was seen as more of a kindred spirit to Trump, both of whom fashioned careers as political outsiders trying to shake up the establishment. 

American officials tried to put a warm spin on the meeting. 

‘We think it makes all the sense in the world for the president’s first overseas trip to be to the United Kingdom,’ a senior administration official said, pointing out the special relationship between the two nations.

The Biden administration is also seeking to reclaim the United States’ presence and leadership on the global stage after four years of Trump’s isolationist strategy.  

‘America is back’ is the phrase Biden and his team have used over and over again. 

In their sit-down, Biden and Johnson discussed climate change, the coronavirus pandemic, creating an infrastructure financing program for developing countries, Afghanistan and a refresher of the 80-year-old Atlantic Charter between the two nations.

Weather changed some of the plans.

Drizzles and fog surrounded the Cornwall region on Thursday, causing the White House and Downing Street to scrap plans for a scenic face-to-face meeting between the two leaders on St. Michael’s Mount, a 17th-century castle on a tidal island just off the coast of Cornwall.

The meeting, instead, took place on the mainland at Carbis Bay, where the G7 summit is taking place. Additionally, Jill Biden‘s previously scheduled tour of the historic castle with Carrie Johnson was cancelled. 

At their sitdown, Biden and Johnson pledged to open a US-UK travel corridor ‘as soon as possible’ and open up Transatlantic travel restrictions.

They also established a new ‘Atlantic Charter,’ modelled on the one put together by Winston Churchill and Franklin Delano Roosevelt in World War II.

The 1941 Atlantic Charter was devised at sea on board the Royal Navy battleship HMS Prince of Wales and the American ship USS Augusta. Downing Street had planned to send the modern namesake of HMS Prince of Wales along the coast of Cornwall to provided the backdrop for the two leaders’ sit down. 

At his meeting with Johnson, the two men viewed the original Atlantic Charter before they sign a 21st century version.

The new Atlantic Charter focused on threats to modern democracies, an agenda item the White House as emphasized ahead of the trip as American worries grow about the growing world influence of Russia and China.

The areas the two leaders pledged to work together include defending democracy, reaffirming the importance of collective security, and building a fair and sustainable global trading system.

It also recognized the threats of cyber attacks and climate change.      

Biden called climate change a great threat to the world.

‘When I went over to the tank in the Pentagon when I was first was elected vice president with President Obama, the military sat us down and let us know what the greatest threats facing America were, the greatest physical threats,’ he told Air Force personnel stationed at Royal Air Force Maidenhall on Wednesday night.

‘This is not a joke. You know what the Joint Chiefs told us the greatest physical threat facing America was? Global warming,’ he said. 

On the Northern Ireland issue, The Times reported that Yael Lempert, charge d’affaires at the US Embassy in London, told Brexit Minister Lord Frost the UK’s stance was imperiling the peace process. She had been ordered to issue the diplomatic rebuke, known as a demarche, a step rarely taken between allies, The Times said. 

They are often issued alongside a summons for the country’s ambassador to attend the Foreign Office.

Government minutes from June 3 reveal Lord Frost was told of President Biden’s ‘great concern’ in a tense encounter in which Lempert is said to have ‘slowly and gravely read her instructions aloud’.

She is said to have implied the UK had been ‘inflaming the rhetoric’ and asked if the Government would ‘keep it cool’. She also warned the dispute between Britain and the EU was ‘commanding the attention’ of Biden ahead of his meeting with Johnson.

The memo said the US ‘strongly urged’ Britain to come to a ‘negotiated settlement’ even if it meant ‘unpopular compromises’.

But Lempert, who is America’s most senior diplomat in Britain, said that if the UK could accept demands to follow EU rules on agricultural standards, Mr Biden would ensure the matter ‘wouldn’t negatively affect the chances of reaching a US/UK free trade deal.’

A ban affecting goods including burgers and chicken nuggets is due to come into force at the end of this month when a grace period expires.

Tory MP Peter Bone told MailOnline that if Biden does comment publicly he will be interfering in the ‘internal affairs’ of the UK.

‘It isn’t anything to do with President Biden. It would be very strange if we were to comment on a domestic issue relating to a part of the US. It is an internal matter.

‘I would be very surprised if he says anything in public. And obviously what people say anonymously must be taken with not just a pinch of salt, a pot of salt.’

And long-standing Eurosceptic Tory John Redwood today said: ‘If President Biden wishes to back a good outcome on the island of Ireland he needs to press the EU to respect the UK internal market and the views of the majority in Northern Ireland. It is the EU disrupting trade.’ 

But Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said: ‘We’ve just seen an unprecedented rebuke from President Biden in relation to the negotiations in relation to Northern Ireland.

‘And that comes on the back of months of chaos, of lack of preparedness and, frankly, the Government misleading the public.

‘I’ve worked in Northern Ireland. I know what it means for those communities and the way the Government is going about this is undermining the peace process. But it’s now also undermining our relationship with America. So we need to make progress on this.’  

At their arrival in the UK on Wednesday night, Joe and Jill Biden received a warm welcome at the base, garnering several rounds of applause. They spoke outdoors as the sun set behind them. Both Bidens wore face masks but took them off to speak. 

President Biden mentioned his late son Beau, a major in the Delaware Army National Guard. He teared up as he thanked military personnel the Royal Air Force Mildenhall for their service.

‘I wish my major was here to thank you as well,’ he said referencing his late son, who died of brain cancer in 2015.  ‘You’re the best of our country,’ he added.

He also outlined the goals of his trip and the message he wanted to give to world:  ‘The United States is back and the democracies of the world are standing together to face the toughest challenges.’

Biden said during his meetings with fellow leaders, he would focus on COVID, climate change, and on protecting themselves from ‘the growing threat of ransomware attacks…[and] the autocrats who are letting it happen.’

After his G7 meeting, Biden heads over to the main continent, where he will meet in Brussels with NATO and EU leaders, where the Russian and Chinese threats will top the agenda.  

Biden is also facing mounting criticism of his domestic policy during his first foreign trip.

On Thursday, newly released statistics showed inflation rose by 5 percent in April compared to 2020, the biggest jump since the Great Recession in 2008. 

The administration is also trying to resurrect infrastructure talks that collapsed with Republican Senator Shelley Capito last week.

There is also intense criticism over Vice President Kamala Harris’ trip to the Northern Triangle and her meetings with the presidents of Guatemala and Mexico.

The White House on Thursday morning insisted her trip was a ‘success’ – despite reports stating insiders were ‘perplexed’ by her snippy answers  when asked why she refuses to visit the border.

She also enraged progressive Democrats by telling migrants to not make the ‘dangerous trek’ to the US-Mexico border.

‘Do not come’, insisted during a press conference with the President of Guatemala Alejandro Giammattei. 

 Giammattei sat down for an interview for Fox News on Wednesday night where he said Biden was to blame for the border crisis.

Giammattei also said he’d offered a solution to Vice President Kamala Harris by urging the US to work with him to prosecutor people smugglers.

Giammattei told Sean Hannity reporter Sara Carter: ‘You can see that humanitarian messages were used here by the coyotes in a distorted manner.

‘They said that they were going to support family reunification.

‘So the coyotes came and took the children and teenagers to the United States.

‘And the border filled up. Not only with people from Guatemala, but lots of people.

‘That’s why we have suggested that the messaging be clear.’