Khaberni - King Charles III will visit the United States in late April, Buckingham Palace announced on Tuesday, despite some calls for the visit to be canceled or postponed amid the Middle East war.
The confirmation of the King’s first state visit to the United States comes at a critical time for the "special" British-American relations, as President Donald Trump has often criticized Prime Minister Keir Starmer's cautious stance on the US-Israeli war against Tehran.
The visit of King Charles and Queen Camilla will "celebrate the historic ties and modern bilateral relations between the United Kingdom and the United States," according to a Buckingham Palace statement.
After Britain, they will head on an official visit to Bermuda, a British Overseas Territory.
Last week, Washington's envoy to Britain, Warren Stevens, warned that canceling the visit would be a "grave mistake."
President Trump launched a harsh attack on Starmer at the start of the war, accusing him of failing to support the United States.
Earlier this month, after Starmer initially refused to allow US warplanes to take off from British bases to strike Iran, Trump said, "The person we deal with is not Winston Churchill."
Trump added, "I am disappointed in Keir," criticizing "Starmer's grave mistake."
This will be King Charles's first visit to the United States after Trump was hosted in a grand state visit last September.
The mercurial American president has often expressed his admiration for the British royal family, who arranged a full official dinner banquet for him at Windsor Castle, along with military parades and an air show during that visit.
That earlier visit was Trump's second historic visit, also hosted by the late Queen Elizabeth II in 2019 before her death.
But in his latest severe attack on Starmer's government, Trump called on countries like Britain to take responsibility for securing the Strait of Hormuz themselves because "the United States will no longer be there to help you, just as you were not there to help us."
A poll conducted by YouGov and published on Thursday showed that nearly half of British citizens oppose King Charles’s visit to the United States, while only a third supported it.
Earlier this month, senior Labour Party member Emily Thornberry said, "It would be safer to postpone" the visit.
She warned that Charles and Camilla might feel "embarrassed" due to the ongoing dispute.
Opposition Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey asked, "Why are we rewarding Donald Trump with a state visit from our king?"
