The Queen, Boris, Erdogan and Putin on Biden's must-see list

When Joe Biden turns up in Europe for his first foreign trip he has four names on his priority meet list, two of whom will give him no hassle and the other two could be tricky. The White House probably said to Biden, "there's good news and bad news: Her Majesty the Queen has invited you to tea at Windsor Castle, Boris will have a session with you, no problem there, but the bad news is both Erdogan and Putin have agreed to meet you." Well, of course, as the president of the United States, you have to mix the good with the bad and the latter two will be more challenging and therefore probably more interesting. With the first two names on the meet-and-greet list, there is only one message which a visiting US president to the UK is expected to say and I'm sure Biden will do just that. He will tell the Queen how important the special relationship is between the US and UK and then at a press conference with Boris he will make it clear that the special relationship is still alive and well. Likewise when he attends the Nato summit in Brussels his script will include the words, "Nato remains the cornerstone of European and Atlantic security", just as the word "iron-clad" is always used when the US president or one of his senior cabinet members describes the relationship with Israel and with South Korea. But while the US under Biden will have no truck with Trump-like doubts about the Nato alliance, the relationship with Nato member Turkey will require a very careful choice of words. Biden will tell President Erdogan how important Turkey is as an ally but the Turkish leader likes to go his own way, like when he bought the Russian SS-400 air defence system despite pleas from Washington and Brussels and everyone in the alliance not to do so. Erdogan rejected all the pleas. It's too late now. Biden won't be ale to change Erdogan's mind. The equiment is already being installed. Big coup for Putin and bad news for Nato. The Biden and Erdogan chat will therefore be tricky. Erdogan is not the sort of leader who likes to be pushed around, so Biden will have to step carefully around the most sensitive issues. I'm sure he will manage it because as his first trip overseas it HAS to be seen as a success. Whether he will get any leeway with Putin everyone will be dying to find out. It will probably be like two parallel lines never meeting up. Fireworks? No. A damp squib? Yes.