Biden on mission to mend fences in overseas trip
US President Joe Biden has began his first overseas trip. The trip is largely a mission of mending fences with key European allies that had been alienated by immediate former President Donald Trump.
The tour will do Biden some good, giving him and Americans a distraction from frustrations at home, particularly on the impasse of his flagship $ 2.3 trillion infrastructure plan, after he totally failed to get buy-in by the Republicans after weeks of negotiations.
The time out will give him some breathing space to restrategise for better luck.
Biden is however bound to get some culture shock during his trip. The world has changed somewhat while he was away from power after President Obama’s exit in January 2017.
The geopolitical landscape is markedly different from what Obama crafted in his eight-year term at the White House.
The terrain is no longer conducive to an America that runs roughshod over those that do not toe the line.
Even as Biden tries hard to show camaraderie with US allies, the European Union (EU) has become increasingly wary of the superpower in recent years.
But how can the US expect the EU to have mutual feelings of best friends amid recent allegations that the US National Security Agency spied on senior officials of neighboring countries Sweden, Norway, France, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, using a partnership with Denmark’s foreign intelligence unit?
In Britain, his body language and that of Queen Elizabeth will be closely observed for signs of warmth or tension.
Trump’s meeting with the Queen was dramatic, with Britons actually resenting his visit after accusing him of interfering in British politics in support of the Conservative Party and Brexit.
In a case of West meets East, Biden will wrap up his diplomatic tour with an in-person meeting with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin.
For observers and analysts of international affairs, this is really the meeting to watch. It is like saving the best for last, in what is expected to be a test of wits.
Biden’s huffing and puffing about Russia’s alleged cyber spying on the US is a continuation of the latter’s stratagem aimed at intimidating lesser powers by alleging both industrial and political espionage of developed Western countries.
Allegations of spying between the two countries go back over a decade. In July 2010, the US and Russia swapped spies in Vienna.
During a banter with comedian Jay Leno on America’s The Tonight Showon 10 July, 2010 then Vice President Biden joked about the issue after being pushed by his host to explain why the US had received only four spies against the 10 extradited to Russia.
Experts say the major but one-sided issues on Biden’s list of complaints include human rights, imprisonment of Alexei Navalny and other Kremlin critics, allegations of Russia’s meddling in US election, and diplomatic tensions after Moscow and Washington recalled their respective ambassadors following Biden’s outrageous “killer” insult to Putin.
It will be Biden’s opportunity to flex his muscles and size up Putin. Experts believe that the meeting comes last by design, to give Biden the courage to face Putin after showing him the unity between America and its powerful allies.
His pronouncement to the media on this summit before boarding Air Force One that he aims “to make it clear to Putin and China that Europe and US are tight, and the G-7 is going to move,” betrayed his unspoken fears.
Biden’s foreign policy so far is unclear. While he has been consulting covertly on internal challenges, he may have decided to go it alone on the international front to test the waters, and to avoid antagonising the disparate views of his advisers and close associates. But he must think on his feet as the status quo is becoming fluid and unpredictable. — The writer comments on international affairs
