Biden to meet UK PM amid cluster bomb unease

Nepal Views

Kathmandu: US President Joe Biden has landed in the UK ahead of a Nato summit in Lithuania later this week – which comes after several allies questioned his call to send cluster bombs to Ukraine.

The UK and Canada are among those who voiced concern about supplying the bombs, which are widely banned because of the danger they pose to civilians.

The US says they are needed because Ukraine’s weapon stocks are dwindling.

On Monday, Mr Biden will meet UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. The two men are expected to discuss various issues, including the war in Ukraine.

Mr Sunak has not directly criticised his US counterpart following Friday’s cluster bomb announcement – but on Saturday he said that the UK was one of 123 countries signed up to the Convention on Cluster Munitions, an international treaty which bans the production or use of the weapons.

Other US allies have gone further, however. Nato partner nation New Zealand said on Sunday the munitions could cause ‘huge damage to innocent people’.

Cluster bombs typically release lots of smaller bomblets that can kill indiscriminately over a wide area. Unexploded bomblets can linger on the ground for years before they detonate.

The main part of Biden’s Europe trip will be the NATO summit in the Lithuanian capital Tuesday and Wednesday, when the Western allies will discuss helping Ukraine oust invading Russian forces.

Biden is expected to use the summit to pressure Turkey into dropping opposition to Sweden’s NATO membership bid, after Ankara accused Stockholm of being too lenient toward groups it regards as a security threat, including Kurdish armed groups and people associated with a 2016 coup attempt.

In a phone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday, Biden “conveyed his desire to welcome Sweden into NATO as soon as possible,” the White House said.

The two leaders ‘expressed their shared commitment to continue supporting Ukraine,’ the statement added. Erdogan’s office said that he would meet with Biden on the sidelines of the summit.

The talks will focus on ‘Ukraine’s position in NATO, Sweden’s NATO membership, and the delivery of F-16’ fighter jets, which Turkey hopes to secure from the United States, the Turkish presidency said.