Had it not been for Donald Trump, and the Corona epidemic, which did not allow even the host country, Britain, to make a final decision yet on the date for the full reopening of the country, the G7 summit, which started on Friday in the far southwest of England, and concludes today, Sunday, would not have enjoyed an exceptional It is due in the first place to the insistence of the leaders of the assembled countries to highlight it. As US President Joe Biden can exercise in Europe, which he chose as the destination of his first foreign visit since he officially took office last January, to display his capabilities in one of his most important features as the 46th President of the United States, which is that he comes to his country’s allies, succeeding To Trump, thanks to him, raised questions about the feasibility of continuing to hold this summit annually, which brings together the largest economies in the world, but economies that no longer cover only 40 percent of global economic wealth.
Thanks to Trump and the epidemic, the summit, which bore the name “Vaccines Summit”, can promote a double slogan of “return”: America’s return to prove its ability to play its leading role in the world, and lead the post-Corona economic recovery phase, and the return of global, international and bilateral meetings and summits to Its “direct” nature adds a touch of optimism to the discussions currently taking place in Europe.
Despite this, the summit, which pledged to immunize the world against Corona, does not seem capable of fulfilling even this pledge, given the historical difficulty for it to follow up on its pledges. Therefore, the meetings and summits that will take place on the sidelines of the Group of Seven summit, this time, may carry more important answers for those who are waiting for the outcomes of the decision-makers. Biden, who may be the last of the hard-line American presidents in their “Atlantic” and who has tested US-European relations closely for decades, awaits next week three more defining summits of US foreign policy with allies and adversaries alike. The European Union, in Brussels, and the summit between Biden and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Geneva next Wednesday. China, the present absentee, remains in the US presidential tour, although it is not an official address for any of the meetings, as the gathered around it may unite in launching an investigation into the origin of Corona’s origin, while the policy of providing vaccines is part of the strategy to contain its influence.
Biden may be the last hardline American president in their Atlantic
After an interruption of nearly two years due to the Corona pandemic, the leaders of the seven major industrialized countries, the United States, Canada, Britain, Germany, France, Italy and Japan, continued yesterday, their summit in presence, in Cornwall in England, which British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had opened Friday, preaching the provision of millions of vaccines. To the world’s poor by the end of this year, with generous support from the United States.
The summit bears several titles, on top of which is securing and facilitating the arrival of vaccines to the countries of the world, and avoiding it not being ready for another health disaster, with a special space to combat climate change, which may be a cause for the expansion and spread of epidemics. Working on this requires not only the “Union of Democracies”, which is the slogan of the American return, but also making sure that the unilateralism and protectionism that emerged with Trump’s four years in the White House is gone forever. And if this is still questionable in Europe, it is also a matter of relief. According to the theory of French President Emmanuel Macron, who is meeting with Biden on the importance of multilateralism and Atlanticism, Trump has played an important role by allowing Europe to re-evaluate its policies and options in relative isolation from the American ally.
For European allies, Biden does not yet look any different from his predecessor. This at least has become the focus of European debate, despite the festive nature of the reunion in Cornwall. This complicates the fact that the two countries at the summit, Germany and France, are facing two entitlements soon, with the end of the era of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and France entering into the difficult presidential stage for Macron. Europe, in turn, is facing questions about its extreme right, which remains strong in the scene, while Trump was accusing it of exporting some of the radical left to the United States. The summit is taking place in the atmosphere of Britain’s first year after “Brexit”, as Johnson tries to manage “Global Britain”, with a more comprehensive view, while continuing to emphasize the deep alliance with the United States. Also, at the gates of an Atlantic summit, many questions revolve in Europe about whether Washington has finally crystallized its policy to confront China, which is an acute contentious issue in which European countries do not want to join one of the axes of the new “Cold War”.
Yesterday, the Group of Seven summit entered the heart of the research topics, especially the prevention of health crises and the defense of a multilateral approach, with the leaders of South Korea, South Africa and Australia joining them, as well as United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, while the participation of Indian Prime Minister Narendra remained Modi, hypothetical, given the dangerous health situation in his country. The G7 is supposed to sign the “Carbis Bay Declaration” (in Cornwall), which the British government presented as “historic”, and contains a series of commitments to prevent a new health disaster. The declaration includes reducing lead times for developing vaccines, treatments and diagnostics, strengthening health oversight, and initiating a reform of the World Health Organization to strengthen it.
The discussion may include the issue of suspending patents for vaccines, in order to speed up their production, which is a thorny topic, supported by Paris and Washington and opposed by Berlin. Diplomacy also dominated yesterday’s discussions, with the issue of multilateral defense and basic international policy issues that will devote a great deal of space to China and Russia. The leaders of the Group of Seven countries intend to affirm their “values” of liberal democracy, although this “will certainly lead to confrontation with Russia and with China in some aspects,” according to what Merkel warned before the opening of the summit. In this context, Biden is pushing for a broad plan for infrastructure and facilities in Africa and Asia, to counter the “New Silk Roads” initiative put forward by China, which aims to finance huge large scales abroad to increase its influence.
Questions revolve in Europe, about whether Washington has finally crystallized its policy to confront China
In this regard, The New York Times saw that “with China replacing the Soviet Union, as the first competitor to the United States, the latter and Europe seem less united compared to what it was during the Cold War phase, a geopolitical change, which creates a lot of tension between The two parties,” wondering whether the show of unity at the summit was real, or was it just a diplomatic pantomime, to reassure Europeans who were shocked by Trump’s “America First” policy, but are doomed to lead them to disappointment later, when they realize that Biden is still on his own path?
In response, the Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee in the British Parliament, Tom Tugendat, considered to the newspaper that “US foreign policy has not fundamentally changed,” adding that it is today “more cooperative, but like all leaders, Biden puts his country’s interest in the foreground. It does that, it will distract others.”
Experts believe that while Biden has placed China at the top of his hard-line agenda, and while the United States wants European cooperation in this, its expectations may be low, given the importance of the common economic interests between China and several European countries, especially Germany. In this regard, it is worth noting that despite all the “rights differences” and “mutual sanctions”, Merkel’s farewell visit to China this summer is still possible on her agenda, and Macron may accompany her, as they have little appetite. The outbreak of a new “cold war” with Beijing.
While the Americans question Europe’s desire to cooperate with them on the Russia and China files, despite Biden’s goodwill gestures, such as stopping the trade war or suspending the imposition of taxes on some basic materials such as steel, the Europeans are also skeptical about the Biden era, which is dominated by the character of the “transitional” president. “. The Democratic president, who seeks to bring about an internal “coup” against everything Trump has done, does not seem in a hurry to cooperate abroad, while some analysts consider his policies “still a legacy of the twentieth century.”
