(Washington) He has offended or cooled his allies, planed his major reform projects, he will not even be able to cross swords with Xi or Putin … Yet it is by representing a conquering America that Joe Biden intends to participate in the G20 and at COP26.
The US president flies Thursday to Italy, where the summit of the twenty largest world economies is held on Saturday and Sunday. He will then go to the United Kingdom, for the major international conference COP26 on the climate.
Joe Biden, who without being asked to wear the costume of “leader of the free world” neglected by Donald Trump, and who willingly presents himself as the leader of democratic forces against the authoritarian powers, with China in the lead, should occupy without too much difficulty the front of the stage during these two events.
Indeed, neither Chinese President Xi Jinping – with whom Joe Biden has had to be content with telephone conversations since his election – nor Russian President Vladimir Putin are making the trip, arguing health concerns.
Vatican
Before mingling with his other counterparts around the world, the American president, a fervent Catholic, will see Pope Francis at the Vatican on Friday.
The same day he will have a tête-à-tête with Emmanuel Macron. The American president seeks to turn the page, after a serious crisis in mid-September with France around a contract for submarines.
This affair, like the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, made the international star of Joe Biden turn pale, he who chanted that “America is back”.
The allies of the United States had yet celebrated him at a G7 Summit in June, applauding the Americans’ return to the Paris climate agreement, their willingness to negotiate with Iran as well as with South Korea. North, or their determination to stop the COVID-19 pandemic.
Faced with the press on Tuesday, his National Security adviser Jake Sullivan nevertheless assured that all was going for the best especially between Europeans, baffled by the assumed diplomatic pivot of Joe Biden to Asia, and the United States.
“Enthusiasm”
“Neither Russia nor China will be represented in person at the highest level […] The United States and Europe will be there, united and full of energy, ”he said.
Jake Sullivan wants to believe that the allies of the United States have not lost any of their “enthusiasm” for Joe Biden and his plans.
But these same allies can see that the White House is cutting down every day a little more the gargantuan spending promised in infrastructure, health, education and energy transition, in the hope of finally bringing together the necessary voices in Congress.
The four and a half months since the G7 “have chilled Europeans,” said Heather Conley of the Center for Strategic International Studies during a conference call Monday.
“Climate disaster”
At the G20, the United States will not hesitate to recall its leading role in the establishment of a minimum tax for companies in the world, and in the international distribution of vaccines. They also hope for financial commitments from their partners in favor of poor countries and the energy transition.
Joe Biden, whose confidence rating continues to crumble, also hears about two very real problems for Americans: soaring energy prices, and persistent disruptions in global trade.
In Glasgow, he will defend, according to his national security adviser, the idea that there is “no contradiction” between the fight against climate change and the quest for economic prosperity. There is no question for Washington to present the energy transition from the angle of constraint or sacrifice, despite the alarmist messages of the UN, again Tuesday, on the “climate catastrophe” which is looming.
“You will see what it means, to make foreign policy for the American middle class,” Jake Sullivan told reporters Wednesday. As if it were necessary to clarify that, even on the international scene, Joe Biden never loses sight of national interests.