President Joe Biden caused a stir on Monday when apparently violated royal protocol touched King Charles III during the arrival ceremony at Windsor Castle, while the king visibly lost his cool after one of the Welsh Guardsmen at the castle apparently spent too much time talking to the president.

Biden, who arrived in Britain late Sunday and spent the night at the US embassy in London, ended the day’s meeting with the king and a group of business leaders along with several US and UK officials.

After arriving on the Windsor grounds by helicopter for their first private meeting since Charles became king last year, Biden wowed palace watchers by placing his hand on the king’s elbow as the two men shook hands. .

After the warm welcome, the president placed his hand on the king’s back as they surveyed the Welsh Guards assembled in the Windsor quadrangle, and the king returned with a similar gesture moments later.

The two men seemed to be smiling and excited as they wandered around the castle grounds. At some point, however, Carlos stormed into Biden while they were reviewing the Guard of Honor.

Biden, who was chatting with one of the soldiers he was checking on, ignored the king’s polite suggestion to keep moving, with the king apparently snapping his fingers and gesturing to the guards after the president stepped forward.

Although protocol states that the monarch is generally untouchable, Buckingham Palace sources are sharing People that Biden had not broken protocol and noted that the king was “very comfortable” with the meeting.

“What a beautiful symbol of warmth and affection between people and their nation,” he emphasized.

King Charles and Biden have met several times during their time in public life, with their last two meeting during the Cop26 summit in Glasgow and a reception at Buckingham Palace during the 2021 G7 summit.

Both times, the issue at hand was each other’s efforts to fight climate change, and the same issue was on the agenda during Biden’s visit with the king.

The two participated in what the White House described as a “climate pledge” with Her Majesty and various “philanthropists and investors” including the CEOs of Bank of America, Prudential and BlackRock, and US climate envoys John Kerry and Grant Shapps. , UK Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero.

Shapps told reporters that British officials were “very pleased” that the Reducing Inflation Act signed by Biden last year “gave a boost to clean energy targets.”

Biden’s audience with the king followed a 42-minute visit to 10 Downing Street for tea with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

Sitting in the backyard with the prime minister, Biden said the US-UK relationship continued to “move forward in a positive way” and was “robust”.

The US president, who has met his British counterpart five times in the last five months, joked it was “nice to be back” and commented that he and Sunak only met “once a month”.

Meanwhile, the British prime minister said he and Biden would use a brief bilateral meeting to discuss “how to strengthen our cooperation” and “shared economic security for the benefit of our people.”

“We are the two strongest allies in that alliance and I know we want to do everything we can to strengthen Euro-Atlantic security,” he said.

After meeting with the king, Biden left London for Vilnius, where he will take part in a Nato leaders summit before traveling to Helsinki to meet with Nordic leaders.

_{Translation of Michelle Padilla}