US President Joe Biden is heading to Europe ahead of a Nato summit after several allies questioned his decision to send cluster bombs to Ukraine.
The UK and Canada are among those who voiced concern about supplying the bombs, which are widely banned because of the danger they pose to civilians.
The US says they are needed because Ukraine’s weapon stocks are dwindling.
Mr Biden will arrive first in the UK, on Sunday evening, before heading 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 the King was crowned.
Members of Nato – a military alliance of 31 Western nations – will then meet in Vilnius on Tuesday and Wednesday.
But the US is going ahead, in the heat of international criticism, in supplying them to Ukraine as its forces struggle to break through Russia’s defences in the south of Ukraine.
But Mr Biden’s stopover in Britain is so brief that any cracks in the transatlantic alliance are likely to be smoothed over by warm handshakes and ample protocol.
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