President Biden used his first public meeting with America’s European allies to describe a new struggle between the West and the forces of autocracy. He declared that “America is back” and admitted that the past four years had marred his power and influence.
His message of the importance of revitalizing alliances and renewing our efforts to defend Europe was predictably well received at a session of the Munich Security Conference addressed by Mr Biden from the White House.
But there have also been setbacks, in particular from French President Emmanuel Macron, who in his address passionately defended his concept of “strategic autonomy” vis-à-vis the United States and advocated that Europe can no longer be overly dependent on the United States because it is turns its attention more to Asia, especially China.
And even Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is stepping down within the year, praised Mr Biden’s decision to cancel plans to withdraw 12,000 American troops from the country, warning that “our interests will not always converge”. It seemed to be an indication of Germany’s ambivalence towards China – an important market for automobiles and other German high-end products – and of the ongoing battle with the US over the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to Russia.
However, all three leaders seemed to realize that their first virtual encounter was a moment to celebrate the end of the America First era and that Mr. Macron and Ms. Merkel welcome back Mr. Biden, a politician they knew well were called from his years as Senator and Vice President.
And Mr Biden seized the moment to warn of the need for a common strategy to fall back on an internet-based narrative advocated by both Presidents Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and Xi Jinping of China that the chaos around the American elections were another sign of democratic weakness and decline.
“We have to show that democracies can still do something for our people in this changed world,” said Biden, adding: “We have to prove that our model is not a relic of history.”
For the President, who himself regularly attended the conference as a private citizen after his work as Vice-President, the address was a kind of homecoming. In view of the pandemic, the Munich conference was reduced to a video meeting lasting several hours. An earlier short closed group meeting of the 7 Allies’ Group, which was attended by Mr Biden and hosted this year by UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, was also conducted via video.
The next personal summit is planned for this summer in the UK, if the pandemic allows.
Mr Biden never mentioned his predecessor Donald J. Trump in his remarks, but rather framed it by eradicating the traces of Trumpism in the United States’ approach to the world. He celebrated the return of the Paris Climate Agreement, which went into effect shortly before the meeting, and a new initiative announced Thursday evening to join the UK, France and Germany diplomatically with Iran to restore the 2015 nuclear deal, the Lord Trump left.
Rather than setting out an agenda in detail, Mr. Biden tried to recall the first principles that led to the Atlantic Alliance and the creation of NATO in 1949, just before the start of the Cold War.
“Democracy is no accident,” said the president. “We have to defend it. Strengthen it. Renew it. “
In deliberate contrast to Mr Trump, who spoke of leaving NATO and repeatedly refused to acknowledge the United States’ responsibility under Article V of the Alliance’s charter to help attacked members, Mr Biden admitted the United States is ready to assume their responsibility as the linchpin of the alliance.
“We will keep the faith,” he said, adding, “an attack on one is an attack on all.”
But he also urged Europe to think about challenges in new ways – unlike in the Cold War, even if the two greatest geostrategic opponents seem familiar.
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“We must prepare together for long-term strategic competition with China,” he said, citing “cyberspace, artificial intelligence and biotechnology” as the new territory for the competition. And he advocated defending himself against Russia – naming Putin by his last name without a title – and specifically mentioned the need to respond to the SolarWinds attack that targeted federal and corporate computer networks.
“Tackling Russia’s ruthlessness and hacking into computer networks in the US, as well as across Europe and the world, are critical to protecting collective security,” said Biden.
The president avoided addressing the difficult question of how Russia can pay a price without escalating the confrontation. A senior White House cyber official told reporters this week that the scope and depth of the Russian penetration are still being investigated and officials are clearly having difficulty finding options to fulfill Mr Biden’s commitment to pay Mr Putin a price for the attack allow .
But it was the dynamism of Mr Macron, who made it a habit to criticize the NATO alliance as “brain-dead” and no longer “relevant” since the Warsaw Pact disappeared, that attracted attention.
Mr Macron wants NATO to function more as a political body, a place where European members have the same status as the United States and less subject to the American tendency to dominate decision-making.
A Europe that can defend itself better and is more autonomous would make NATO “even stronger than before,” stressed Macron. He said Europe should be “much more responsible for its own security” and increase its defense spending commitments to “rebalance” transatlantic relations.
This is not a widespread view among the many European countries that do not want to spend the money they need, and the nations of Central and Eastern Europe are unwilling to trust the United States with their security.
Mr. Macron also urged that the renewal of NATO’s security capabilities should include “a dialogue with Russia”. NATO has always claimed that it is open to better relations with Moscow, but Russia is not interested, especially as international sanctions remain in place after Ukraine captured Crimea about seven years ago.
But Mr Macron, speaking in English to answer a question, also argued that Europe could not count on the United States as much as it has for decades. “We have to take more of the burden of our own protection,” he said.
In practice, it will take many years for Europe to build a defense arm that will make it more independent. But Mr Macron is determined to start now, just as he is determined to increase the technological capabilities of the European Union so that it becomes less dependent on American and Chinese supply chains.
In contrast, Mr. Biden wants to deepen these supply chains – both hardware and software – among like-minded Western allies in order to lessen Chinese influence. He is preparing to propose a new joint project for European and American tech companies in areas such as semiconductors and the kind of software Russia has exploited in SolarWinds hacking.
It was Ms. Merkel who dealt with the complexity of dealing with China, as it plays a double role as a competitor and a necessary partner for the West.
“In recent years, China has gained global clout, and as transatlantic partners and democracies we must do something to counteract this,” said Merkel.
“Russia is constantly embroiling the members of the European Union in hybrid conflicts,” she said. “It is therefore important that we develop a transatlantic agenda for Russia that, on the one hand, makes cooperative offers, but on the other hand identifies the differences very clearly.”
While Mr Biden announced that he would keep an American promise to donate $ 4 billion to the campaign to accelerate the manufacture and distribution of coronavirus vaccines around the world – a move made last year by a Democratically run house and a Republican-led Senate – there were marked differences in approach during the meeting.
Underlining the importance the European Union attaches to Africa, Mr Macron called on Western countries to deliver 13 million doses of vaccine to African governments “as soon as possible” to protect health workers.
He warned that if the Alliance did not do so, “our African friends would be pressured by their people to rightly buy cans from the Chinese, the Russians or directly from laboratories.”
Vaccine donations would “reflect a common will to promote and share the same values,” Macron said. Otherwise, “the power of the West, Europeans and Americans, will only be a concept and not a reality.”
Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of the World Health Organization, also on Friday urged countries and drug manufacturers to speed up the manufacture and distribution of vaccines around the world, warning that the world could be “back to number 1” if it does The countries continued their vaccination campaigns, leaving others behind.
“Vaccine equity is not just the right thing, it’s the smartest,” said Dr. Tedros at the Munich conference. He argued the longer it would take to vaccinate the population in each country, the longer the pandemic would get out of hand.
Melissa Eddy, Elian Peltier and Mark Landler contributed to the coverage.
