President Joe Biden’s first official trip to Europe: eight days to reassure the allies

Joe Biden returned to Washington after an eight-day trip, his first official visit as President of the United States. This European tour took him to the United Kingdom, Brussels, and Geneva for a summit meeting with Vladimir Poutine.

Obviously, we are tempted to make the comparison with Donald Trump and the catastrophic G7 summit organized three years ago in La Malbaie, Quebec. The 45th American President had left before all the other leaders, ranting against Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and explaining in a flurry of tweets written from the Air Force One plane that he refused to affix the signature of the United States on the final press release.

Obviously, we also remember the declarations of Donald Trump on NATO which he considered ineffective, expensive, and obsolete.

Finally, everyone remembers the Trump / Putin summit held in Helsinki in July 2018, during which the US President seemed to give the Russians more credit than his own intelligence services. This casualness in the face of the master of the Kremlin had shocked on this side of the Atlantic, including in the Republican camp.

Trump has since left the White House and Biden has become the 46th President of the United States. And this first official trip, eight days in three countries, marked a radical change of tone and program.

At the G7 in Cornwall, then with the NATO countries in Brussels, Joe Biden wished to recall the importance of alliances, of multilateralism, and specified that his country’s commitment to its allies and to these institutions was » a sacred commitment «.

End of the Boeing / Airbus standoff

During the European Union / United States summit, Biden buried the hatchet, especially commercial, in the Boeing / Airbus case, putting an end to a standoff that lasted for 17 years between Europeans and Americans.

Facing Putin, Biden was clear. He spoke about Human Rights and mentioned the situation of the opponent Navalny , currently imprisoned. He also promised that the United States would retaliate in the event of a new attempt at Russian interference in the American elections, or in the event of a new cyberattack.

Evoking these different files, Biden sums up his trip in three words: “America is back!”. And during his final press conference in Geneva, he said: «I believe, I hope that the United States has shown the world that we are back. To our allies. To the side of other democracies. Committed together in the face of the important challenges our world has to face. And this evening, we have also just established very clear rules vis-à-vis Russia. And vis-à-vis Russian-American relations. «

Joe Biden’s next big international meeting is scheduled for mid-July in Washington. The President of the United States took advantage of the G7 summit to invite German Chancellor Angela Merkel to the White House.