As they met at Belfast’s Grand Central Hotel, the two leaders posed for pictures.
The New York Times’s description of a bilateral meeting as a “bi-latte” was disputed by Downing Street yesterday.
After accusations that Biden was anti-British, the White House said this morning that the US president was not “anti-British.”
US President Joe Biden’s “track record shows he is not anti-British”, a spokesperson for the country’s National Security Council has said.
Amanda Sloat made the comment amid criticism of the truncated nature of President Biden’s visit to Northern Ireland – and reports of a brief meeting with Rishi Sunak in Belfast.
In a media briefing, Ms Sloat said that “the UK remains one of our strongest and closest allies”, and said that comments from former first minister Arlene Foster that President Biden “hates the UK” were “simply untrue.”
Ms Sloat said the president “is a very proud Irish-American, very proud of those Irish roots, but is also a strong supporter of our bilateral partnership with the UK, not only bilateral, but also with NATO, the G7 and the United Nations Security Council”.
She added that the US was working “in lockstep” with the UK government on international challenges.
President Biden has often been characterised by many in the unionist community as being biased towards Irish nationalism.
Ms Sloat was asked if the president supported Irish unification, but said that that was a matter for the people of Northern Ireland to ultimately decide under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.
She also described the meeting with the leaders of the NI’s five main parties today as “not a formal sit-down group meeting”, but said there would be a “proper conversation”.
But to confirm Biden’s anti-British defence claims, politics-watchers are bound to compare these pictures with the “bromance” shots we saw when Mr Sunak met French President Emmanuel Macron last year.