Biden to champion democracy in first foreign trip
Joe Biden will struggle what he calls a good "defining" challenge for democracy on his first foreign presidential trip, appointment top US allies in Europe before a good tricky summit with Russia's Vladimir Putin.
The busy agenda - with G7, NATO and EU summits ahead of the Putin sit-down in Geneva - will dsicover Biden fly the flag for a West he views at an "inflection point". "That is a defining dilemma of our time," Biden wrote in The Washington Content ahead of his trip.
"Can the democratic alliances and establishments that shaped so a lot of the last hundred years prove their ability against modern-moment threats and adversaries? I believe the answer is yes. And this week in Europe, we have the chance to prove it."
Biden's pitch marks a good return to a normal US worldview after a number of years where Donald Trump flirted with autocrats and recast multilateralism seeing that a dirty expression. Biden meets G7 partners - Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan - from Fri to Sunday at a seaside resort in south-west England, after that appointments Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle. From there he flies to Brussels for NATO on Jun 14 and the EU meeting on Jun 15 before heading to find Putin, whom Biden lately characterized as a "killer," in Switzerland.
That choreography - by far the most intense travel schedule because the 78-year-old took office - was created to send a very clear message to Putin: Biden will represent a democratic bloc, not simply the US.
"He will get into this meeting with the wind at his back again," National Protection Advisor Jake Sullivan stated.
