King Charles happily met Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy this weekend in Sandringham. Prime Minister Keir Starmer spearheaded a vivid show of solidarity with Ukraine, inviting European leaders and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to England over the weekend and doing photocalls and meetings around Ukraine. All of this was in response to the catastrophic meeting in the Oval Office last Friday between Zelenskyy, JD Vance and Donald Trump, a meeting in which Vance and Trump openly spouted Kremlin talking points as they lied and berated Zelenskyy. There are now widespread calls in the UK for King Charles to rescind his invitation to Donald Trump to make another state visit. I think people are missing the larger point? None of this is really Charles’s call, although he seems to be in lockstep with the Starmer government about how he and his “royal soft power” should be deployed. The Times had this interesting piece about Charles’s moves, not only with Ukraine, but Canada as well:
Far from merely smoothing over the row between Trump and Zelensky, however, sources close to the King describe his current role as being three-fold: to show diplomacy in action by building bridges with America, by expressing continued European support for Ukraine and, last but not least, through his support for the Commonwealth realms.
The latter was seen in action when Charles met Justin Trudeau at Sandringham on Monday. The Canadian prime minister has had his own problems with the new US administration after Trump’s tariff threats. As King of Canada, Charles has an obligation to a country with which he has close ties. He visited 19 times before ascending the throne and has lifelong friends there. It was here, on a visit to Halifax in 2014, that the King, then Prince of Wales, shared his views on Putin, likening him to Hitler. The Kremlin was furious.
As monarch, Charles will need to be more subtle with his language. The palace knows that actions speak louder than words when they come from a monarch. Or rather, less is more.
The King has already deployed this method. Last month, a seemingly innocuous social media post on the official royal social media channels marked National Flag of Canada Day, not something the palace always commemorates. Coming during the height of Trump’s attack on Canada, however, those in the palace were aware of the power of such a message at such a time. In a signed, personal letter, Charles paid tribute to Canada as a “proud, resilient and compassionate country”. The symbol of the maple leaf, he said, “never fails to elicit a sense of pride and admiration as I recall with the deepest affection my many Canadian visits and friendships”.
A visit to Canada is surely overdue for a senior member of the royal family, so Trudeau will have been pleased to spend time discussing the issues of the day with the King. The meeting also showed that the King was determined to build transatlantic alliances of all kinds, not just with the US.
The King’s task is not an easy one. Aides not known for their hyperbole have noted privately that the past week has been an exceptional moment for royal diplomacy, and one not seen for years. Charles has been treading a diplomatic tightrope as he works to build alliances across countries while not breaching the political guardrails. The King is still undergoing treatment a year after his cancer diagnosis was announced. However, Charles is said to be determined to play a key diplomatic role at this crucial time.
A royal source said that the King was “very conscious” of his global responsibility and unique diplomatic role and determined to put that to good use. The source said: “It has been six days of royal diplomacy at its most delicate, deliberate and nuanced. His Majesty is very conscious of his responsibility globally, regionally and nationally — and passionately engaged in all the detail.”
The source described the King’s audiences with Zelensky on Sunday and Trudeau on Monday as being “routine but highly significant, given the global context”.
While I obviously don’t know for sure, I would assume that the Starmer government brought these meetings and photocalls to Charles and asked him to do them, and Charles immediately said yes. It was probably Charles’s idea – or his staff’s idea – to bring Zelenskyy to Sandringham and to stage the intimate photo-op by the fire as well. It was probably Charles’s call to speak to Zelenskyy privately for several hours too. None of this is Charles acting independently though, that’s my larger point. Starmer is using Charles to pursue a larger strategy. To his credit, Charles has been doing this very well. Once again, it helps that Charles was the most well-traveled Prince of Wales in history and he has decades-long relationships across the world. All of this makes Prince William’s sad little storyline about “Trump thinks Peggy is handsome, therefore Peggy is a global statesman” seem especially childish. Notice how they’re keeping William far away from these politically sensitive photo-ops and meetings too.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.
