Biden in Europe Wednesday to reassure allies and confront Putin
G7, NATO, EU, then Vladimir Putin: US President Joe Biden flies to Europe on Wednesday with a double objective: reassure the allies and send a warning to Russia.
The symbolism is strong: for his first trip abroad, the 46th President of the United States, 78, chose to honor the transatlantic ties, strained under the Trump presidency.
“My trip to Europe is an opportunity for America to mobilize democracies around the world,” he wrote, posing as a central player in what he presents as an ideological standoff against “autocracies”. ", China in the lead.
Since arriving at the White House, he has insisted that the United States is back at the table of multilateralism, determined to play a key role, from the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic to that against climate change.
But beyond real relief after the jolts and invective of the Trump years, a form of impatience is noticeable on the European side.
For Benjamin Haddad, of the Atlantic Council think tank, if the tone is much more constructive, a certain “disappointment” is palpable.
"We talk a lot about 'America is back', there is positive rhetoric, but now we have to take action," he told AFP.
The distribution of American vaccines to other countries has been too late to take place. Washington’s lack of reciprocity after the European Union’s decision to reopen its doors to American travelers has made people cringe. And the way the withdrawal from Afghanistan was announced, without any real prior consultation, was not appreciated in European capitals.
Economic factors linked to the priorities at the start of the mandate explain this situation. But the reasons are also deeper. "Fundamentally, Europe is much less central to American foreign policy than it was 20 or 30 years ago," recalls the French researcher.
The "doubts" of the allies
In addition, the mandate of the stormy billionaire, who had, among other things, called NATO "obsolete", has left its mark.
"The allies are still in doubt, and keep in mind the forces that brought Trump to power in 2016," said US diplomat Alexander Vershbow, former number 2 in the Atlantic Alliance.
Expected Wednesday evening in Cornwall, in the south-west of England, Joe Biden will participate in the G7 Summit (Germany, Canada, United States, France, Italy, Japan and United Kingdom) after a face-to-face meeting with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
On Sunday, accompanied by First Lady Jill Biden, he will visit Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle.
With the exception of Lyndon B. Johnson, the monarch will have met all of the current US presidents during her 69-year reign.
Joe Biden will then fly aboard Air Force One for Brussels (NATO leaders summit then EU / US summit), before completing his eight-day trip to Geneva with a highly anticipated summit with Vladimir Putin.
Ukraine, Belarus, fate of imprisoned Russian opponent Alexei Navalny, cyberattacks: the talks are going to be bitter and difficult.
The White House, which alternates conciliatory messages and warnings, insists that it has modest expectations. The only objective put forward: to make relations between the two countries more "stable and predictable".
The memory of Helsinki
The US presidency gave very few details on how the tete-a-tete would unfold, only hinting that a joint press conference between the two men was not on the agenda.
The one that took place between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in Helsinki in July 2018 is still in everyone's minds in Washington.
In a strange exercise, which had sparked an uproar even in his camp, the tempestuous president seemed to place more value on the words of the former KGB strongman than on the unanimous conclusions of the American intelligence agencies on the Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign.
Team Biden say the tone will be very different this time around.
"We do not see a meeting with the Russian president as a reward for the latter," said Jake Sullivan, national security adviser. The main reason for this summit? "To be able to look President Putin in the eye and tell him: these are the American expectations".
"Dialogue with Russia is not a sign of weakness," insisted NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg after a meeting Monday in the Oval Office with the US president.
And in a carefully choreographed sequence, two days before leaving Washington, Joe Biden invited his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky to visit him at the White House over the summer.
For the city of Geneva, the meeting will have a special flavor: in 1985, it hosted a summit between US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
