King Charles III, during an April 28 address to Congress, highlighted the enduring relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom, emphasizing its deep historical roots and shared values.
“Standing here today, it is hard not to feel the weight of history on my shoulder because the modern relationship between our two nations and our own peoples spans not merely 250 years, but over four centuries,” he said.
The king’s roughly 35-minute speech comes as the United States prepares to celebrate its 250th anniversary in July.
He opened by addressing the recent shooting near the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on April 25, expressing solidarity with the American people.
“We meet, too, in the aftermath of the incident not far from this great building that sought to harm the leadership of your nation and to foment wider fear and discord,” he said. “Let me say with unshakable resolve, such acts of violence will never succeed.”
Charles also expressed his respect for Congress, noting that his late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, addressed a joint session in 1991.
Throughout his speech, the monarch underscored the shared democratic foundations of the two nations—even when those principles once divided them.
“As I look back across the centuries … there emerge certain patterns, certain self-evident truths from which we can learn and draw mutual strength with a spirit of 1776, in our minds, we can perhaps agree that we do not always agree, at least in the first instance,” he said.
He pointed to the principle of “no taxation without representation” as both a historic source of conflict and a shared democratic ideal rooted in British political tradition.
Charles said the U.S.–UK relationship evolved out of disagreement.
“Ours is a partnership born out of dispute, but no less strong for it. So perhaps in this example, we can discern that our nations are, in fact, instinctively, like-minded, a product of the common democratic, legal, and social traditions in which our governance is rooted,” he said.
“To this day, drawing on these values and traditions time and again, our two countries have always found ways to come together.”
The king also reflected on the 1939 visit of his grandfather, King George VI, and the Queen Mother to the United States, at a time when the threat of fascism was rising in Europe.
“The forces of fascism in Europe were on the march, and sometime before the United States had joined us in the defense of freedom, our shared values prevailed,” he said.
Charles touted the defense of the United Kingdom, noting that it “has committed to the biggest sustained increase in defense spending since the Cold War.”
Turning to modern security cooperation, Charles praised the strength of the U.S.–U.K. alliance, including its role within NATO, despite recent tensions between President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Keir Starmer over the war in Iran.
“Our defense, intelligence, and security ties are hard-wired together through relationships measured not in years, but in decades,” he said.
He also highlighted the AUKUS agreement, the trilateral partnership formed in 2021 between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States to promote stability in the Indo-Pacific amid growing concerns about China.
He also paid tribute to 9/11 as “a day that shall never be forgotten.” Charles and his wife, Camilla, will visit the 9/11 memorial in New York City this week as part of their four-day visit.
Finally, the king emphasized the need to care for nature.
“Yet even as we celebrate the beauty that surrounds us, our generation must decide how to address the collapse of critical natural systems, which threatens far more than the harmony and essential diversity of nature we ignore at our peril,” he said. “The fact that these natural systems, in other words, nature’s own economy, provide the foundation for our prosperity and our national security.”