KING CHARLES III DELIVERS A MEMORABLE ‘KING’S SPEECH’ TO THE US CONGRESS

In what is being widely hailed as a royal masterclass in diplomacy, Britain’s King Charles III brought his unique brand of majesty to the US Congress on Tuesday in an address marking the United States 250th anniversary of independence.

Addressing a joint session of Congress, King Charles highlighted the longstanding relationship between the UK on several fronts, one of them being security: “Our defence, intelligence and security ties are hardwired together through relationships measured not in years, but in decades…We do not embark on these remarkable endeavours together out of sentiment. We do so because they build greater shared resilience for the future, making our citizens safer for generations to come.”

What many are calling the real ‘King’s speech’ (referring to a movie of the same name) came at a time of tense relations between the American President Donald Trump and the British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer. Their previously warm overtures have soured over the refusal of the British government to join the US and Israel in their war against Iran.

And in what is widely regarded as a gesture to smooth things over, the King noted: “As my Prime Minister said last month: ‘ours is an indispensable partnership. We must not disregard everything that has sustained us for the last eighty years. Instead, we must build on it’.”

He added: “The challenges we face are too great for any one nation to bear alone. But in this unpredictable environment, our alliance cannot rest on past achievements, or assume that foundational principles simply endure.”

On matters of trade, where the US is again at odds with the UK, the King also adopted a conciliatory tone.

We celebrate the $430bn in annual trade that continues to grow,” he reminded, while also speaking about the $1.7trn in mutual investment that fuels that innovation, and the millions of jobs on both sides of the Atlantic supported across both economies….These are strong foundations on which to continue to build for generations yet unborn.”

President Trump is threatening further tariff hikes on the UK over a planned Digital Service Tax being introduced by the Starmer administration.

In the wake of tense exchanges between the US president and some of his NATO allies, the British King stressed the importance of the trans-Atlantic bond. “We must ignore the clarion calls to become even more inward-looking. In these turbulent times, working together and with our international partners, we can stem the beating of ploughshares into swords.”

The 20-minute presentation to a packed Congress was punctuated by rousing applause and a four-minute standing ovation when he closed. King Charles’s address to Congress this week also made history for other reasons. He became the first British king to address the powerful chamber in almost two and a half centuries since the US declared its independence from Britain in 1776.

During his landmark speech, King Charles III also recalled that his late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, had also made an equally historic address to the US Congress in 1991.

By Michael Jarvis, London UK