King Charles and Queen Camilla will travel to the United States for a state visit with US President Donald Trump amid mounting tension between Washington and Europe over the Iran war.
It will be the first time in nearly 20 years that a monarch has paid a state visit to the US, with the king expected to address Congress.
Mr Trump confirmed the state visit, taking place between April 27 and 30, would also include a banquet dinner at the White House.
“I look forward to spending time with the King, whom I greatly respect,” he wrote on Truth Social.
“It will be TERRIFIC!”
But there have been widespread calls for Charles to boycott the trip as the so-called “special relationship” between the US and the UK continues to fracture.
Less than an hour before Buckingham Palace confirmed the visit, Mr Trump lashed out at the UK, telling it to “go and get their own oil” from the Strait of Hormuz.
“You’ll have to start learning how to fight for yourself,” Mr Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
“The U.S.A. won’t be there to help you anymore, just like you weren’t there for us.“
The state visit, which Buckingham Palace said was made on advice from the UK government, comes amid a backdrop of tensions with other European countries too.
Europeans ban US war planes from airspace
Mr Trump used his Truth Social post on Tuesday, local time, to criticise France for not letting planes carrying military supplies to Israel fly over French territory.
Italy has also denied permission for US military aircraft to land at its air base in Sicily, despite the country’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, having close ties with Mr Trump.
Giorgia Meloni has also closed her nation’s airspace to the US despite her ties to Donald Trump. (Supplied: Italian government via Reuters)
Spain has also closed its airspace to US planes involved in attacks on Iran, a step beyond its previous refusal to allow the use of jointly operated military bases.
“We fear absolutely nothing,” Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said on Spanish broadcaster TVE.
“How could a country possibly fear anything for upholding international law, world peace and the United Nations Charter?“
Before the state visit was confirmed, UK MP Dame Emily Thornberry, who chairs parliament’s powerful Foreign Affairs Committee, said it would be “safer to delay” the visit, while Sir Ed Davey, the leader of the minority opposition Liberal Democrats, questioned: “Why are we rewarding Donald Trump with a state visit from our king?”
A recent poll in the UK, carried out by YouGov, found nearly half of British citizens opposed the state visit to the US, with only a third saying it should go ahead.
The Stop Trump Coalition said the UK was paying “the price for Trump’s war” and the visit should be called off.
“As the cost of the war bites and Trump insults the UK daily, it is unacceptable that Starmer will continue his failed strategy of appeasing Trump by sending the king to wine and dine with the warmonger-in-chief,” the group’s spokesperson Jane Atkinson said.
“If the government really wants to show that it wants an end to Trump’s illegal war, then it should cancel the king’s visit and follow Spain’s example.”
But Washington’s envoy to Britain, Warren Stephens, warned last week it would be a “big mistake” for the US visit to be cancelled.
Sir Keir Starmer gives Donald Trump an invitation from King Charles for a second state visit during a meeting in February. (Reuters: Carl Court/Pool)
Can the king help ease tensions?
The so-called “special relationship” between the US and the UK has been souring since Mr Trump visited the UK for a state visit last September.
It was an unprecedented event, with the US president becoming the first elected world leader to receive two state visits hosted by the British royal family.
The visit was a glittering occasion featuring dazzling tiaras, brass bands and an enormous banquet.
State visits are designed to bolster ties between nations, particularly in difficult times, and the royal family’s soft power diplomacy is viewed as an important way of engaging with Mr Trump.
While Mr Trump has regularly indicated he is fond of Charles, he has criticised Sir Keir for being “no Winston Churchill” since the conflict in the Middle East began.
Craig Prescott, an author and UK constitutional law expert at Royal Holloway, University of London, told ABC News there would have been “extensive conversations” between Downing Street and the king about how to use this visit to mend the tense relationship.
“Clearly the UK has had to think about, as has every other country, how to essentially deal with President Trump,” he said.
“This has been a tool that the UK has been able to use, to have the monarchy involved in this, and to perhaps have the monarchy involved to a greater extent than they might have done with other US presidents.”
Dr Prescott said last year’s second state visit was the royal family’s way of helping “the UK government in its foreign policy objectives”.
He said no other country could offer a state visit in the same way with all the “pomp and splendour” and a relationship with “arguably the most famous family in the world”.
King urged to meet Epstein survivors
Meanwhile, a Democratic congressman has written to the king, asking him to meet with the survivors of late US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein during the state visit.
Ro Khanna, who co-authored the Epstein Files Transparency Act, encouraged Charles to privately meet with victims and survivors to hear “how powerful individuals and institutions failed them”.
“Epstein’s network had significant ties to the United Kingdom through Ghislaine Maxwell, through Epstein’s relationships with British public figures, and through the social and political circles in which he operated,” he wrote.
“Additionally, members of Congress have sought testimony from both Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Peter Mandelson regarding their respective ties to Epstein.
“A meeting with survivors would provide an opportunity to identify any additional information British institutions and individuals may be able to share and open a dialogue about whether there will be a full accounting of how Epstein’s and Maxwell’s network operated in the United Kingdom.”
Full details of the state visit in late April have not yet been revealed, but it will celebrate the 250th anniversary of American Independence.
After the US, the king will travel on to Bermuda, marking his first royal visit as monarch to a British overseas territory.
