When Joe Biden was about to board Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland to commence his first trip abroad as president, he was left powerless as an armada of cicadas pounced on him and his staff.
According to The New York Times, the flying insects invaded the plane’s engines, forcing it to remain grounded until five hours after the planned departure Wednesday.
Only until a new pilot and plane could be acquired did the president and a legion of journalists have the chance to escape the wrath of the cloud of Brood X cicadas roaming the region.
This was expected, nonetheless. In recent weeks, billions of the 17-year cicadas have been flying across Maryland, D.C. and the surrounding area, mustering enough density to show up on weather radar.
In the brief incursion with Biden, the lot of cicadas can be observed taking an interest in the president.
President Biden gets the cicada treatment on the way to Europe pic.twitter.com/ywthb2hIJy
— The Recount (@therecount) June 9, 2021
“Watch out for the cicadas. I just got one — it got me,” Biden said to reporters.
Biden: “Watch out for the cicadas. I just got one — it got me.” pic.twitter.com/NY41opxTle
— The Recount (@therecount) June 9, 2021
Biden plans to travel to the United Kingdom, Belgium and Switzerland during the trip. According to a White House statement, the European trip “will highlight America’s commitment to restoring our alliance, revitalizing the Transatlantic relationship, and working in close cooperation with our allies.”
The president was to meet with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Thursday and then the G-7 summit in Cornwall, United Kingdom. The G7 is expected to address challenges presented by the coronavirus pandemic, economic recovery and climate change.
At the height of significance, however, Biden will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Geneva on Wednesday.
The two leaders, at this point, are quite comfortable with one another.
When they first met in 2011, Biden told Putin, then Russia’s prime minister, “I’m looking into your eyes, and I don’t think you have a soul,” according to The New Yorker.
The topical meeting is expected to garner little substantive agreement. However, the stakes remain high.
Biden campaigned on policies that did not look to reinvigorate Washington’s relations with the Kremlin. During the meeting, the president is expected to reproach Putin on a variety of issues that he says violate or threaten U.S. interests.
Washington views the Kremlin’s military support for pro-Russian fighters in Ukraine, along with the nation’s attempts to diminish the West’s international influence and undermine its regional and national security, as its core grievances against Moscow.
The expectation that the two sides can find mutual agreement on anything remains low. Neither side is expected to remain tolerant or open to the interests of the other.
Biden and Putin ought to, at the very least, ascertain on which common and strategic interests the two nations agree.
Biden will also meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to discuss an array of bilateral issues, in addition to the president’s participation in the NATO Summit on Monday.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
