By Jonathan Allen and Maria Tsvetkova
WASHINGTON/NEW YORK, April 29 (Reuters) – Britain’s King Charles and his wife Queen Camilla arrive in New York on Wednesday to commemorate victims of the September 11, 2001, al Qaeda attack on the city, part of a four-day state visit to the U.S.
The king and queen’s visit to New York follows a packed day in Washington on Tuesday, when Charles delivered a speech to the U.S. Congress, held private meetings with President Donald Trump amid tensions between the U.S. and Britain over the Iran war, and sat down with leaders of the U.S. tech industry.
At a White House state dinner on Tuesday night, Trump suggested Charles told the president he did not want Iran to have a nuclear weapon. The king is not a spokesman for the UK government and it could not be confirmed that Charles made the statement to Trump.
Downing Street did not comment on Trump’s remarks, but Buckingham Palace said in a statement on Wednesday, “The King is naturally mindful of his government’s long-standing and well-known position on the prevention of nuclear proliferation.”
Britain was one of the countries alongside the U.S. that negotiated the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran, which sharply limited Tehran’s nuclear programs and opened them to inspectors until Trump unilaterally withdrew the U.S. from the agreement during his first White House term.
Charles and Camilla’s visit to New York comes on the third day of their state visit to the U.S. during a tense time in relations between the U.S. and Britain after Trump has repeatedly criticized Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer for what Trump says is his lack of help in prosecuting the Iran war.
9/11 MEMORIAL
Charles and Camilla will begin their day in New York with a ceremony at the 9/11 memorial in lower Manhattan, where the twin towers of the World Trade Center were destroyed by al Qaeda suicide bombers on September 11, 2001, an attack that killed nearly 2,800 people.
Charles is expected to meet with New York City’s mayor, Zohran Mamdani, at the ceremony.
The king will then head to Harlem to visit a grassroots community organization that created a sustainable after-school urban farming initiative in an effort to combat food insecurity, according to local media. Such projects have been a passion of the king’s for decades.
Meanwhile, Camilla will celebrate the 100th birthday of A.A. Milne’s fictional character Winnie-the-Pooh on behalf of her charity, The Queen’s Reading Room, which Buckingham Palace is calling a “literary engagement” event.
During his speech to the U.S. Congress in Washington on Tuesday, Charles stressed the historical military and cultural ties between Britain and the U.S., in a visit which officially is to celebrate the 250th anniversary of America’s declaration of independence from British rule.
Yet the king also stressed the importance of NATO, at a time when Trump has been critical of the Western military alliance’s reluctance to provide military help to the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran, and warned against American isolationism.
“I pray with all my heart that our lands will continue to defend our shared values with our partners in Europe and the Commonwealth, and across the world, and that we ignore the clarion calls to become ever more inward-looking,” Charles told the joint meeting of the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives.
(Reporting by Tim Reid, Jonathan Allen and Maria Tsvetkova. Writing by Tim Reid. Additonal reporting by Michael Holden and William James in London; Editing by Lincoln Feast and Keith Weir)
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