Rude or Not?

Published in Sankei Shimbun
(Japan) on 13 April 2023
by Kiyoshi Ouchi (link to originallink to original)
Translated from by Dorothy Phoenix. Edited by Helaine Schweitzer.
The reasons President Joe Biden will not attend the coronation of King Charles III in May are a bit of a hot topic in the U.S.
First Lady Jill Biden will be attending in his place, but as the U.S. is one of the U.K.’s closest allies, Biden’s absence from the ceremony is considered an “extraordinary insult.”

On the other hand, Biden will travel to Northern Ireland (a part of the U.K.) and Ireland on April 11. The visit commemorates the 25th anniversary of the Belfast Agreement of April 1998, which ended the conflict between Protestant citizens, who wanted the U.K. to continue ruling Northern Ireland, and Catholic citizens who opposed British rule.

Biden is Catholic, and his Irish ancestors immigrated to the U.S. in the mid-19th century to escape the Great Famine in Ireland. For that reason, many social media sites have speculated that Biden “[holds] a personal discomfort with the British monarchy.”

However, the reality is that since the U.S. gained independence in the 18th century, not one U.S. president has attended a coronation ceremony for the British monarchy. Last September, Biden was the first U.S. president to attend a U.K. state funeral after the death of Queen Elizabeth II. Accordingly, therefore, the view that Biden’s decision not to attend the coronation isn’t a snub makes sense. It is hard to judge diplomatic protocol since you can’t draw conclusions from outward appearances alone.


失礼か否か

バイデン米大統領はなぜ、英国で5月に行われるチャールズ国王の戴冠式に参列しないのか-が米国でちょっとした話題になっている。名代でジル夫人が出席することになっているのだが、最も緊密な同盟相手である米国の大統領が欠席するのは「礼を失するのではないか」というわけだ。

一方でバイデン氏は今月11日から、英領北アイルランドとアイルランドを歴訪中。英国の北アイルランド統治継続を望むプロテスタント系住民と、反対するカトリック系住民の紛争を終結させた1998年4月のベルファスト合意から25年となったのを祝うためだ。

バイデン氏は19世紀半ばに起きた飢饉から逃れるために米国へ渡ったアイルランド移民を先祖とするカトリック信徒だ。それだけに交流サイト(SNS)などでは「英国や王室に複雑な感情があるのではないか」との臆測も散見される。

ただ、実は18世紀の独立以来、米大統領が英王室の戴冠式に出席したことは一度もない。バイデン氏は昨年9月に行われた故エリザベス女王の国葬に米大統領として初めて参列している。だからバイデン氏が戴冠式に出席しないことは「失礼にはあたらない」というのが常識的な見方のようだ。外交儀礼というのは、表面的な印象だけでは判断できないから難しい。(大内清)
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