{"id":555809,"date":"2026-04-28T22:28:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T22:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/555809\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T22:28:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T22:28:09","slug":"king-charles-praises-nato-and-urges-defence-of-ukraine-in-key-speech-during-trump-visit-king-charles-iii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/555809\/","title":{"rendered":"King Charles praises Nato and urges defence of Ukraine in key speech during Trump visit | King Charles III"},"content":{"rendered":"

King Charles has extolled the importance of Britain\u2019s \u201cspecial relationship<\/a>\u201d with the United States in a speech to US Congress that made pointed reference to the importance of Nato, the defence of Ukraine and the climate crisis.<\/p>\n

In a speech that will be read as a veiled plea to Donald Trump<\/a> to return to the United States\u2019 traditional European alliances and restore his country\u2019s role as a defender of liberal values, Charles said: \u201cAmerica\u2019s words carry weight and meaning, as they have since independence. The actions of this great nation matter even more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Charles\u2019s appearance before the joint session of Congress \u2013 the first such royal address in 35 years \u2013 was billed as the centrepiece of his four-day state visit to the United States, where he and Queen Camilla are taking part in celebrations to mark the 250th anniversary of independence.<\/p>\n

Charles praised the historic bond between the two nations, saying: \u201cThe alliance that our two nations have built over the centuries \u2013 and for which we are profoundly grateful to the American people \u2013 is truly unique.\u201d<\/p>\n

But in comments that appeared to draw an approving response from Democratic lawmakers, he noted the roots of \u201cthe principle that executive power is subject to checks and balances\u201d in one of the UK\u2019s foundational legal documents, Magna Carta.<\/p>\n

And he urged \u201cunyielding resolve\u201d in the cause of \u201cUkraine and her most courageous people\u201d in order to \u201csecure a truly just and lasting peace\u201d.<\/p>\n

Speaking from the dais of the House of Representatives before an audience that included lawmakers from both parties and top military officials, he also emphasised the importance of action on the climate crisis.<\/p>\n

\"'Our‘Our nations’ alliance is truly unique’: King Charles calls for unity in US speech \u2013\u00a0video<\/p>\n

He made reference to \u201cthe natural wonders\u201d of the United States, speaking of what Teddy Roosevelt called \u201cthe glorious heritage of this land\u2019s extraordinary natural splendor, on which so much of its prosperity has always depended\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cYet even as we celebrate the beauty that surrounds us, our generation must decide how to address the collapse of critical natural systems which threatens far more than the harmony and essential diversity of nature.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe ignore at our peril the fact that these natural systems, in other words, nature\u2019s own economy, provide the foundation for our prosperity and our national security.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also underlined the importance of trade between the two nations at a time when Trump has threatened to impose further tariffs on Britain. \u201cMore broadly, we celebrate the $430bn in annual trade that continues to grow, the $1.7tn in mutual investment that fuels that innovation, and the millions of jobs on both sides of the Atlantic supported across both economies.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cFrom the depths of the Atlantic to the disastrously melting ice-caps of the Arctic, the commitment and expertise of the United States armed forces and its allies lie at the heart of Nato, pledged to each other\u2019s defence, protecting our citizens and interests, keeping North Americans and Europeans safe from our common adversaries.\u201d<\/p>\n

Charles also backed Aukus, the trilateral agreement with Australia, which he called \u201cthe most ambitious submarine program in history\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do not embark on these remarkable endeavours together out of sentiment. We do so because they build greater shared resilience for the future, so making our citizens safer for generations to come,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

It was the first such speech by a British royal since Queen Elizabeth II addressed the chamber in 1991, and Charles described the world as having grown \u201cmore volatile and more dangerous\u201d since then, making the nations\u2019 alliance more important than ever.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe challenges we face are too great for any one nation to bear alone,\u201d he said. \u201cIn this unpredictable environment, our alliance cannot rest on past achievements, or assume that foundational principles simply endure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Charles\u2019s remarks were couched in diplomatic terms, and he remained subtle about the differences of opinion between the US and Keir Starmer\u2019s government, which include Britain\u2019s refusal to join the US and Israel in bombing Iran, and Trump\u2019s complaints about British trade policy.<\/p>\n

The address followed an arrival ceremony full of pomp at the White House, in which Trump declared \u201cAmericans have no closer friends than the British\u201d amid a military parade and jet flyover.<\/p>\n

But in a sign of the sensitivities around the visit, the king\u2019s arrival at the White House took place in private<\/a>, for fear of a public argument between the two men similar to when the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, visited last year.<\/p>\n

Congress\u2019s leaders have welcomed the king\u2019s visit, with the Republican Senate majority leader, John Thune, saying in a Tuesday floor speech: \u201cThe special relationship between our two nations has been a long and fruitful one, and I think it\u2019s fair to say that over the course of our nation\u2019s history, we\u2019ve had no choicer ally than Great Britain.\u201d<\/p>\n

His Democratic counterpart, the minority leader, Chuck Schumer, leaned in to some of the tensions that have developed between the Trump administration<\/a> and Starmer\u2019s government over the US\u2019s role in global alliances.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe visit of King Charles III<\/a> should serve as a reminder to the president of the United States and to every elected official in this country, friends and allies matter. And most of all, for the security of Europe, Nato matters,\u201d Schumer said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI encourage his majesty to impress upon the president the absolute importance of Nato. I hope he\u2019s able to get Trump to listen and understand the stakes.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his remarks, the king said that \u201ctime and again our two countries have always found ways to come together\u201d, to create \u201cone of the most consequential alliances in human history\u201d. Avoiding mention of Iran, he instead described their military and intelligence cooperation as \u201chard-wired together through relationships measured, not in years, in decades\u201d.<\/p>\n

With Trump threatening to shred a trade deal<\/a> he signed with Starmer and impose a \u201cbig tariff\u201d if the UK does not withdraw a digital services tax on US companies, the king called the nations\u2019 longstanding commercial ties \u201cstrong foundations on which to continue to build for generations yet unborn\u201d.<\/p>\n

He spoke before a Congress that is controlled by Republicans but bitterly divided on a host of issues as lawmakers look ahead to November, when voters will cast ballots in midterm elections that could put the Democrats back in charge.<\/p>\n

But the business of the two chambers has occasionally encroached on topics Buckingham Palace might typically wish to avoid. In a near unanimous vote, Congress last year passed a bill requiring the release of files related to the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein<\/a>, just after the king stripped his brother<\/a>, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, of his royal title amid concerns about their relationship. He was later arrested<\/a> on charges related to his dealings with Epstein while serving as a trade envoy between 2001 and 2011.<\/p>\n

The investigative House oversight committee has since asked<\/a> Mountbatten-Windsor to answer questions about Epstein, who died in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges, with some lawmakers saying he should be issued a subpoena if he does not come voluntarily.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"King Charles has extolled the importance of Britain\u2019s \u201cspecial relationship\u201d with the United States in a speech to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":555810,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-555809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=555809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555809\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/555810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=555809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=555809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=555809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}