Biden to meet with Queen Elizabeth on first overseas trip as president

President Biden and first lady Jill Biden will meet with Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle later this month when the first couple travels to the United Kingdom for a Group of Seven summit, Buckingham Palace and the White House said Thursday.

The queen is expected to host the first couple on June 13 before they depart the U.K. for a NATO summit and meetings with European leaders in Brussels.

The Queen will meet the President of the United States of America and First Lady Jill Biden at Windsor Castle on Sunday, 13th June 2021. pic.twitter.com/GPJLYwFzyr

— The Royal Family (@RoyalFamily) June 3, 2021

The meeting, which was expected, will be Biden’s first meeting with the queen as president. She has met with a dozen American presidents in her 69 years on the throne. The meeting was said to be in the works before Thursday’s announcement. 

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement later Thursday that the first lady plans to return to the U.S. following the meeting with the queen.

President Biden has met with other members of the royal family, specifically Prince Harry in 2017 when he and then-President Obama traveled to the Invictus Games in Toronto.

In April, the president and first lady offered condolences to the royal family following the death of Prince Philip, the husband of the queen, at the age of 99.

“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,” the Bidens said in the statement. “His legacy will live on not only through his family, but in all the charitable endeavors he shaped.”

The trip overseas will be President Biden’s first since taking office in January; his travel has been constrained for months due to the coronavirus pandemic. He is also scheduled to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Geneva at the end of the trip.

— Updated at 10:36 a.m.