LONDON: Britain&#39;s King Charles III and wife Queen Camilla wrapped up their diplomatically sensitive state visit to the United States on Thursday. Here are five takeaways from their four days in America. Opposites attractDespite being polar opposites in character, Charles and President Donald Trump appeared to share a genuine bonhomie. Charles laughed, albeit slightly embarrassingly, when Trump said in a speech at the White House that his Scottish-born mother had had a crush on the then-prince. The monarch was also photographed laughing in the Oval Office when Trump reached out and patted his knee. Protocol dictates that it is unconventional to touch a member of the royal family. &quot;There&#39;s a personal rapport, because I think Charles is a very skilled diplomat,&quot; royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams told AFP. The jokerCharles showed off his cheeky side when he cracked a number of jokes during the state dinner, which landed well with a receptive audience. He likened Trump&#39;s demolition of the East Wing to British troops setting fire to the White House in 1814 and ahead of this summer&#39;s FIFA World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada, quipped that he and Trump were &quot;joint hosts&quot;. The British monarch is also Canada&#39;s head of state, and the remark could be seen as a subtle reminder to Trump, who has soured relations with his neighbour to the north after last year threatening to make it the &quot;51st state&quot;. Charles also referenced how Trump has said if it was not for the United States, then European countries would be speaking German, adding: &quot;Dare I say that, if it wasn&#39;t for us, you&#39;d be speaking French.&quot; Points scoredDuring a separate speech to Congress, the king politely delivered several pointed messages from the UK government amid tensions with Trump over the wars in Ukraine and Iran. Charles urged the United States to stand firm with its Western allies, adding that &quot;unyielding resolve&quot; was needed to secure a &quot;just and lasting peace&quot; in Ukraine. Trump has berated European leaders in recent weeks for their failure to back his and Israel&#39;s war against Iran and has threatened to pull the United States out of NATO. Charles -- the commander-in-chief of the UK armed forces -- also spoke of his pride at Britain&#39;s Royal Navy in which he served, which was recently mocked by Trump, and stressed the importance of protecting the environment. Awkward momentsTrump set a cat among the pigeons when he claimed that Charles &quot;would have probably helped&quot; the United States in its military offensive against Iran. The president has repeatedly lambasted the UK for failing to join the initial strikes and has branded Prime Minister Keir Starmer as weak and indecisive. Trump also claimed that Charles had agreed with him on the need to prevent Tehran from getting a nuclear bomb. Conversations with the monarch are usually kept private. Before meeting in New York, the city&#39;s leftist mayor, Zohran Mamdani, called on Charles to &quot;return&quot; the prized Koh-i-Noor diamond, which the British Empire took from the Indian subcontinent in the 1800s. Rift repaired?While the Times newspaper hailed Charles&#39;s performance as a &quot;masterclass in effective diplomacy&quot;, it remains to be seen whether the trip will help repair relations between Trump and Starmer, as British officials hope. In an initial sign of improved US-UK ties, Trump announced Thursday he was removing tariffs on Scottish whisky in honour of the departing royals and the state visit. Evie Aspinall, director of the British Foreign Policy Group think-tank, told AFP the four-day trip &quot;may buy the UK some temporary reprieve from Trump&quot;. But she predicted it &quot;will not fundamentally change what remains a very fractured so-called special relationship&quot;. While the visit highlighted that &quot;Trump feels warmly towards the royals, he remains &quot;deeply frustrated at the UK government&quot;, Aspinall noted. Fitzwilliams agreed. &quot;It would have put a positive spin on matters... (but) there&#39;s so many different points of disagreement,&quot; he said.

United Kingdom

Americas

King Charles III and Queen Camilla conclude a US visit marked by warm exchanges with Donald Trump, amid underlying tensions over foreign policy and bilateral ties.

Five takeaways from King Charles III's US visit

LONDON: US President Donald Trump&#39;s state visit to the UK has delivered pledges from US tech giants to invest tens of billions of dollars in the AI sector. The UK and US governments, meanwhile, agreed on co-operation over nuclear and space technology as part of a &quot;Tech Prosperity Deal&quot;, and British pharmaceutical group GSK pledged investment in the United States. The single biggest planned investment comes from US private equity firm Blackstone, which said it would plough &pound;90 billion ($123 billion) into UK assets over the next decade. Below is a list of the main deals, including some &pound;150 billion of inward investment from US companies. Big tech&nbsp;Microsoft&#39;s &quot;largest ever commitment to the UK&quot; comprises a $30-billion investment over four years, half of which will be spent on cloud computing and artificial intelligence infrastructure. It includes plans to build Britain&#39;s largest supercomputer. &quot;We&#39;re committed to creating new opportunities for people and businesses on both sides of the Atlantic, and to ensuring America remains a trusted and reliable tech partner for the United Kingdom,&quot; said Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella.<div class="fr-embed"><div class="twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered" style="display: flex; max-width: 550px; width: 100%; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><iframe id="twitter-widget-0" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true" title="X Post" src="https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-0&features=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%3D%3D&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1968034916832338396&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fmain.d1wrm1qseko1cp.amplifyapp.com%2Fmedia-library%2F&sessionId=cf79ef42d9fb17a3be7b88c63f48942b4be50699&theme=light&widgetsVersion=2615f7e52b7e0%3A1702314776716&width=550px" style="position: static; visibility: visible; width: 550px; height: 672px; display: block; flex-grow: 1;">&nbsp;&nbsp;</iframe></div></div>&quot;That is why we are doubling down on our investment in the UK.&quot; Google plans UK investment of &pound;5 billion over the next two years to power its AI drive, help &quot;fortify cybersecurity&quot; and create 8,250 jobs annually. Nvidia, Stargate UK&nbsp;British firm Nscale has partnered with ChatGPT maker OpenAI and chip giant Nvidia to establish a UK version of Stargate -- a large-scale AI infrastructure initiative. The government stated that the project aims to &quot;develop a platform designed to deploy OpenAI&#39;s technology on sovereign infrastructure in the UK.&quot; Working alongside UK firms, Nvidia pledged to deploy a total of 120,000 advanced GPU chips across the country, representing its biggest ever rollout in Europe.<div class="fr-embed"><div class="twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered" style="display: flex; max-width: 550px; width: 100%; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><iframe id="twitter-widget-1" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true" title="X Post" src="https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-1&features=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%3D%3D&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1968068880951087365&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fmain.d1wrm1qseko1cp.amplifyapp.com%2Fmedia-library%2F&sessionId=cf79ef42d9fb17a3be7b88c63f48942b4be50699&theme=light&widgetsVersion=2615f7e52b7e0%3A1702314776716&width=550px" style="position: static; visibility: visible; width: 550px; height: 624px; display: block; flex-grow: 1;">&nbsp;</iframe></div></div>GSK&nbsp;British pharmaceutical group GSK has announced it will invest $30 billion in the United States over the next five years, as drugmakers face pressure from the Trump administration to relocate production to the country. GSK will expand its research and development investments and production capacities, the company said, including a $1.2 billion plan to build a biologics factory in Pennsylvania for the development of respiratory and cancer treatments.<div class="fr-embed"><div class="twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered" style="display: flex; max-width: 550px; width: 100%; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><iframe id="twitter-widget-2" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true" title="X Post" src="https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-2&features=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%3D%3D&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1968100899093369078&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fmain.d1wrm1qseko1cp.amplifyapp.com%2Fmedia-library%2F&sessionId=cf79ef42d9fb17a3be7b88c63f48942b4be50699&theme=light&widgetsVersion=2615f7e52b7e0%3A1702314776716&width=550px" style="position: static; visibility: visible; width: 550px; height: 861px; display: block; flex-grow: 1;"></iframe></div></div>&quot;This week&#39;s state visit brings together two countries that have led the world in science and healthcare innovation,&quot; GSK chief Emma Walmsley said in a statement. Blackstone&nbsp;The group gave no details of the nature of its planned investments, which comes after its announcement last year to invest &pound;10 billion in an AI data centre in northern England. Bank of America, BlackRock, Citi Group, PayPal and S&amp;P Global are together investing around &pound;1.75 billion in their UK operations. Government partnerships&nbsp;Britain and the United States plan to speed up the development of new nuclear power projects. &quot;This golden age of nuclear is central to the government&#39;s mission to build more clean homegrown power to ensure energy security,&quot; the UK government said. The two countries plan to &quot;drive AI-powered healthcare solutions in areas such as precision medicine and chronic disease&quot;.The UK and U.S. plan also to partner over &quot;revolutionary quantum computers and speed up the deployment of this technology across areas like healthcare, defence and finance&quot;. NASA and the UK Space Agency intend to develop AI models to support science and exploration missions.

Business

The single biggest planned investment comes from US private equity firm Blackstone, which said it would plough £90 billion ($123 billion) into UK assets over the next decade.

Articles tagged with "UK-US Ties"

Five takeaways from King Charles III's US visit

US President Trump's UK visit lands AI, pharma and nuclear pledges