- By Kathryn Armstrong
- BBC News
Jul 9, 2023 at 3:50pm BST
Updated 33 minutes ago
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US President Joe Biden is escorted to Air Force One before departing for the UK
US President Joe Biden is traveling to Europe ahead of a NATO summit after several allies questioned his decision to send cluster bombs to Ukraine.
Britain and Canada, among others, have raised concerns about the supply of the bombs, which are largely banned because of the danger they pose to civilians.
The US says they are needed because Ukraine’s arms stocks are dwindling.
Mr Biden will first arrive in the UK on Sunday evening before traveling to Lithuania for this week’s NATO summit.
On Monday he will meet British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to discuss various issues including the war in Ukraine. He will also meet King Charles for the first time since his coronation.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, members of NATO – a military alliance made up of 31 Western nations – will meet in Vilnius.
Finland will attend its first summit since joining in April. Sweden’s plans to follow suit have been blocked by Turkey, which accuses it of harboring terrorists.
Mr Biden is expected to seek further assistance from Mr Sunak to help negotiate a deal with Turkey.
The issue is expected to be on the NATO agenda in Lithuania as well, along with ammunition stockpiling and defense plans review.
Ukraine has its own ambitions to join NATO. But speaking to CNN ahead of his trip, Mr Biden said that could not happen until the war was over – in line with the alliance’s longstanding policy.
Citing NATO’s mutual defense pact, Mr Biden pointed out that members pledge to protect “every inch” of each other’s territory – meaning that “if the war goes on, then we are all at war”.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has previously accepted this position while demanding a “signal” that his country can join the alliance when the war is over. He is expected to attend the summit this week.
A potentially unpleasant visit
This is potentially an uncomfortable visit that comes at a critical time for the US-led NATO alliance.
President Biden may not have intended to cause offense by skipping King Charles’ coronation in May, but his absence has been noted.
Then there is the question of who should be the next Secretary General of NATO. The UK and Baltic States favored British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace, who has been instrumental in bolstering Western support for Ukraine.
But that’s out of the question without US support – and Mr Biden appears to favor former German defense minister and European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen instead.
And there is also the dispute over cluster bombs. The UK is among 123 countries that have banned these weapons, which can cause indiscriminate harm to civilians.
But the US continues to supply them to Ukraine, despite international criticism, while its forces struggle to breach Russia’s defenses in southern Ukraine.
But Mr Biden’s stopover in the UK is so brief that any cracks in the transatlantic alliance are likely to be smoothed over with warm handshakes and lengthy minutes.
On Friday, the US confirmed it had complied with a Ukrainian request to send cluster bombs – as part of a US$800million (£626million) military aid package.
Mr Biden told CNN it was a “very difficult decision” but he ultimately acted because “Ukrainians are running out of ammunition.”
But a number of NATO allies quickly distanced themselves from the decision.
Mr. Sunak did not directly criticize his US counterpart. But he made it clear that the UK was one of 123 countries to sign the Convention on Cluster Munitions – an international treaty that bans the manufacture or use of these weapons.
Canada and Spain — NATO members like the US and Britain — also voiced opposition to the guns, as did New Zealand, a NATO ally.
“No to cluster bombs and yes to the legitimate defense of Ukraine, which we believe should not be carried out with cluster bombs,” said Spain’s Defense Minister Margarita Robles.
But Germany, another signatory to the treaty and a NATO member, said that while it would not supply Ukraine with such weapons, it understood the American position.
Cluster bombs typically release many smaller bomblets that can kill indiscriminately over a large area.
One of the problems associated with their supply is their failure or dud rate. Unexploded bomblets can remain on the ground for years and then explode randomly.
Ukraine has promised not to use the weapons in civilian areas and to monitor and report on their use, but Russia dismissed these assurances as “worthless.”
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Watch: US military video shows cluster munitions exploding