Biden meets with King Charles III and Rishi Sunak in Europe ahead of NATO

Biden and Prime Minister Sunak discussed the cluster munitions that the U.S. is sending to Ukraine during their bilateral meeting Monday, a White House official said.

Sunak noted to Biden that while the U.K. is legally prohibited from providing the bombs themselves, he understood it was a difficult decision and why the U.S. is providing them to Ukraine, the official said.

The Pentagon announced Friday that the U.S. was providing cluster munitions to Ukraine. The weapons disperse small munitions or bombs over wide areas that can explode after battle and sometimes injure or kill innocent people.

Dana Spinant, a spokesperson for the European Commission, said Monday that bids for NATO or E.U. membership are "two processes” that can't be linked, Reuters reported.

Spinant's comments came after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey would back Sweden's NATO bid if European countries greenlight Turkey's bid to join the E.U., Reuters reported.

While Ukraine is at the top of the agenda of Biden's trip to Europe, China is "always there in the background as the longer-term challenge to the USA and the West," an expert in international relations and British foreign policy told NBC News.

Noting that the British government recently described China as an “epoch-defining challenge” in a review of the British government’s security, defense, development and foreign policy priorities, Tim Oliver, a senior lecturer at the Institute for Diplomacy and International Governance at Loughborough University London, said Beijing would likely be on both Biden and Sunak's minds during the president's visit.

"Russia is — and the U.K. government was also clear on this — the more immediate threat, but in the U.K. the threat perception of China is growing," Oliver said.

The "special relationship" between the U.S. and the U.K. remains "very strong," an expert in international relations and British foreign policy said as Biden and Prime Minister Sunak met amid differences over the war in Ukraine. 

"All premierships and administrations have their differences defined by the personalities of the occupants of the Oval Office and 10 Downing Street," said Tim Oliver, a senior lecturer at the Institute for Diplomacy and International Governance at Loughborough University London following the leaders' meeting. "While they color the relationship, especially headlines for domestic political purposes, they don’t challenge or change the foundations, which remain very strong."

Winston Churchill, the former prime minister, coined the phrase to describe the alliance between Britain and the U.S. during his historic address at Westminster College on March 5, 1946, according to the International Churchill Society. The state of the relationship is frequently referred to in the British press, particularly when the leaders of both countries meet.

"The core of the (special relationship) is intelligence sharing, special forces, and nuclear weapons, three areas the U.K. and U.S. trust each other in ways they don’t with others," Oliver wrote in an email. "That trust is built by officials and military personnel working very closely together, as they have been for decades."

Turkey will back Sweden’s bid to join NATO if European countries "open the way" for Ankara's European Union bid, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Monday.

“Come and open the way for Turkey at the European Union, and then we will open the way for Sweden, just as we did for Finland,” Erdogan told reporters Monday, according to Reuters. He was referring to Finland’s ascension to the military alliance in April, which Turkey initially blocked.

Erdogan’s office said he told President Biden in a call Sunday that his country required a “clear and strong” message of support for their E.U. ambitions at the forthcoming NATO summit, though the Biden administration's readout of the call did not mention Turkey's E.U. bid.

Sweden announced its intention to join NATO in May 2022, three months after Russia invaded Ukraine. But countries that wish to join the alliance must obtain unanimous consent of all member countries, and Turkey has blocked Sweden's NATO bid, citing its alleged support of Kurdish militias, who Ankara calls terrorists.

Marine One, carrying President Biden, takes off from Windsor Castle outside London on Monday:

Kyiv said its troops were advancing in the east and south of the country, and had the entrances and exits of the key occupied city of Bakhmut within firing range.

The Russians seized Bakhmut in May after months of fighting in a major boost for President Vladimir Putin. Now Ukraine may be attempting to recapture the city, which has become a symbol of Ukrainian resistance.

Kyiv is in the middle of a counteroffensive to take back occupied land from Russia with the help of Western-supplied equipment and ammunition.

Russia continues to shell Ukrainian cities. In the town of Orikhiv in the Zaporizhzhia region, four people were killed and 11 injured during the bombing of a residential area, local authorities said. Moscow denies targeting civilian structures in Ukraine.