Biden arrives in Cornwall ahead of G-7 summit

US President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden arrived in Newquay, Cornwall, on Wednesday evening ahead of the G-7 summit.

Biden had just given a speech to US forces based in the United Kingdom after arriving on his first overseas trip as US president.

The most tactile of politicians, Biden has grown frustrated by the diplomacy-via-Zoom dynamics of the pandemic and has relished the ability to again have face-to-face meetings that allow him to size up and connect with world leaders.

While Biden himself is a veteran statesman, many of the world leaders he will see in England, including UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and French President Emmanuel Macron, took office after Biden left the vice presidency.

Another, Germany’s Angela Merkel, will leave office later this year.

There are several potential areas of tension. On climate change, the US is aiming to regain its credibility after Trump pulled the country back from the fight against global warming.

Biden could also feel pressure on trade, an issue to which he's yet to give much attention.

And with the United States well supplied with COVID-19 vaccines yet struggling to persuade some of its own citizens to use it, leaders whose inoculation campaigns have been slower have been pressuring Biden to share more surplus around the globe.