Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II will meet with President Joe Biden and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden on June 13, Buckingham Palace confirmed Thursday.
The meeting will take place during Biden’s trip to the United Kingdom for the Group of 7 summit in Cornwall, England, the president’s first overseas visit since assuming the presidency in January.
The meeting with the Biden family will be Queen Elizabeth II’s first major engagement of its kind since the death of her beloved husband Prince Philip in April. President Biden offered his condolences to the Queen, calling the Duke of Edinburgh “a heck of a guy” in the Oval Office on April 9, praising his lifetime of service to the U.K., his dedication to charitable causes and environmental issues, and his bravery in World War II.
In a statement, Biden said that Philip “gladly dedicated himself to the people of the UK, the Commonwealth, and to his family” and “the impact of his decades of devoted public service is evident in the worthy causes he lifted up as patron, in the environmental efforts he championed, in the members of the Armed Forces that he supported, in the young people he inspired, and so much more.”
Biden will be the 13th President of the United States that Queen Elizabeth, 95, has met with in her over 69-year reign. Lyndon B. Johnson was the only president that the monarch did not meet with.
Queen Elizabeth hosted former President Donald Trump, Biden’s predecessor, at Windsor Castle in 2018, and met with Trump again when the 45th president made a state visit to the U.K. in 2019. Former President Barack Obama also met with the Queen at Windsor in 2016, and previously met with the Monarch in 2009 shortly after becoming president.
