Biden to dump ‘America First’ on partnership appeal

Photographer: Doug Mills / The New York Times / Bloomberg

President Joe Biden will reintroduce himself and the US to world leaders in a pair of international conferences on Friday, calling on industrialized democracies to work together to face the pandemic and climate change in a sharp departure from his predecessor’s foreign policy.

In comments to the Group of Seven and a speech to the Munich Security Conference, Biden will also see collective action as essential in confrontations with major powers with Russia and China, based on former President Donald Trump’s ‘America First’ approach to global affairs. . Trump antagonized allies to negotiate more favorable trade deals and reduce the US military footprint, Biden is looking to quickly recover.

The US’s relations with its allies “are not transactional,” Biden will say, according to excerpts from his speech to the Munich conference released by the White House on Friday. ‘They are not extractive. They are built on a vision of the future where every vote matters. “

The new president will also ask foreign leaders to make major investments in economic stimulus, infrastructure and technology in his efforts, and warns that a greater risk lies in austerity, a senior official said. Biden will argue that democracies must fight to maintain their institutions in the wake of both foreign interference in their elections and domestic unrest, such as the January attack on the US Capitol by Trump supporters.

“We are in the middle of a fundamental debate about the future direction of our world,” he will say in the speech, according to the excerpts. “Between those who argue that – given all the challenges we face, from the fourth industrial revolution to a global pandemic – autocracy is the best way forward and those who understand that democracy is essential to meet those challenges.”

“I believe with every ounce of my being that democracy must triumph,” Biden will say, calling the moment “a tipping point.”

The performances are Biden’s first chance since his inauguration to address an international audience. His speech before the Munich conference, an annual gathering of world leaders, diplomats, defense officials and others, will follow a closed summit with the G-7 leaders. In the speech, Biden elaborates on the US efforts to combat the pandemic and calls for international cooperation to strengthen cybersecurity and curb nuclear proliferation, the US official said.

He will roughly outline his approach to Afghanistan, Russia’s malicious behavior and Iran’s nuclear program, but the speech is largely intended as an announcement that the US is ready to rejoin a transatlantic partnership, the official said. . after Trump’s exhibitions of contempt for NATO.

“The last four, five years have shaken the foundations of liberal democracy on both sides of the Atlantic, and I think he wants to use the speech as an opportunity to say that United States is back as a trusted partner, ”said Charles Kupchan, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations who served as senior director of European affairs on President Barack Obama’s National Security Council.

On Thursday, ahead of the summit and speech, the U.S. State Department announced it would be open to meetings with the UK, France, Germany, Russia, China and Iran in an effort to revive the 2015 agreement blow to prevent the Islamic Republic from going nuclear. weapons.

Read more: US says it is ready to meet with Iran to re-establish nuclear deal

In Europe, the relief that the Trump era is over is tempered by the feeling that aspects of his ‘America First’ legacy will linger. Few officials in European capitals expect the US to be as involved as ever in international affairs. For some G-7 diplomats, that shift was evident as early as 2013, when former President Barack Obama refused to intervene in the Syrian Civil War, even after the country’s government crossed its “red line” against the use of chemical weapons.

Angela Merkel, the four-year-old German Chancellor, has more reason than most to celebrate Biden. She was a frequent target of Trump’s vitriol for not spending enough on NATO defense. Towards the end of his administration, the abrupt announcement that American troops stationed in Germany since the end of World War II would be coming home was considered hateful.

The Pentagon has postponed Biden’s withdrawal, but the decision represented the US turning the page into a chapter in history. Merkel acknowledged that, the day after Biden’s inauguration, she warned Europe that it should take more responsibility.

Obligation to vaccinate

Still, Biden plans to get the US to rejoin parts of the world that Trump almost tried to leave. He will announce Friday that the US will contribute as much as $ 4 billion to low- and middle-income countries to obtain coronavirus vaccines through a Alliance of the World Health Organization, known as Covax. The administration will match some of that aid – which will be distributed over the next two years – with other contributions, in an effort to ramp up Western aid for vaccinations.

In his speech, the new president will also note the US’s official return to the Paris climate agreement on Friday, the White House said.

Biden will receive international applause by simply reconnecting with allies and making traditional statements about the US’s mutual defense pledges. Trump’s flirtation with leaving NATO, embracing autocrats and threatening trade wars eroded the US’s international leadership role.

Yet only 10% of Europeans believe the US would intervene on their behalf during a military crisis, according to a survey by the European Council for External Relations. Nearly six in ten Europeans surveyed said they would like their country to remain neutral in a conflict between the US and Russia or China.

The statistics reveal Biden’s climb on a continent uncertain whether his presidency will usher in transformative change. And European leaders are facing many of the same domestic concerns that dominated the Trump administration, from fears of foreign interference in their politics to concerns about the effects of immigration and globalization.

“Today’s concerns about the security of Europe and the security of allies are not just about an external attack,” said Constanze Stelzenmüller, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. “It’s also about undermining our democratic institutions, trying to undermine or sabotage our physical and digital infrastructure, and undermining any social peace by contributing to polarization through disinformation and propaganda.”

Questions remain in Europe about how Biden’s “middle class” foreign policy will translate into tough trade talks or a troop withdrawal from Afghanistan.

The White House has not yet said how it will carry out Trump’s order to reduce the number of US troops and remove the remaining 2,500 US troops by May 1, with some officials fearing that pursuing could further encourage the Taliban or NATO forces. in the country.

Defense officials have stressed that further withdrawal from Afghanistan will depend on the conditions of the fighting and the progress of negotiations between the Afghan government and the Taliban.

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