Brussels and Washington to seal reconciliation with Biden intervention at EU summit | International

The European Union and the United States will seal their final reconciliation this Thursday after four years of disagreements during the time of Donald Trump. The new American president, Joe Biden, has accepted the invitation of the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, to speak on the first day of a European summit which will last until Friday. The reunion will inevitably take place by interposed screen, like so many international meetings since the declaration of the covid-19 pandemic in March 2020. But in Brussels, it is interpreted as a warm gesture of transatlantic friendship which marks the beginning of ‘a new step.

“The medium is the message,” says a diplomatic source paraphrasing famous communication theorist Marshall McLuhan. Michel’s invitation and Biden’s acceptance are “a signal from Brussels and Washington on the importance of collaboration between the EU and the United States”, adds the same source.

Biden’s brief intervention (scheduled for Thursday at 8:45 p.m. PT) coincides with the presence in the European capital of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. And it comes shortly after the US administration’s climate envoy John Kerry was greeted with a red carpet at the European Commission. Washington’s renewed attention to its European allies contrasts with indifference bordering on disdain for former President Donald Trump. And that departs even from the attitude of Biden’s Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama, whose interests were concentrated in the Pacific, especially during his first term.

“We know that our return raises great expectations,” Blinken said in Brussels after attending the NATO foreign ministers meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday. “We are happy,” added Blinken. And he assured that “the United States is committed to the Alliance, now and in the future”. “I have come to Brussels to consult with our allies because we intend to work with them and our partners whenever we can,” he said.

Both sides recognize that this new harmony does not mean total coincidence or the end of possible trade friction or diplomatic conflicts. The vaccination campaigns themselves to contain the pandemic generate certain tensions because of the risk that American protectionism hits European production. EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton has been working with the Biden administration for weeks to ensure transatlantic supply chains remain open and fluid in the pharmaceutical sector.

Washington also makes no secret of its rejection of the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, promoted by Angela Merkel’s government in cooperation with Vladimir Putin’s Russia. “Germany is one of our close allies, but we have a real disagreement over Nord Stream 2; It’s no secret, ”admitted Blinken, who recalled that for Biden, as before for Trump,“ the pipeline is a bad idea ”. Washington, like many European countries, fears that the new pipeline crossing the Baltic will increase Europe’s dependence on Russian gas.

In some European countries, by contrast, Biden’s belligerence against Russia and China is worrying. During the electoral campaign, the American president proposed the convening of a “summit of democracies” which, according to his detractors, could lead to a general division between different political regimes. “The dynamic of confrontation and showing teeth is dangerous,” says a community source.

Brussels believes that this geostrategic shock could throw Putin’s Russia into the arms of Xi Jinping’s China, a rapprochement which had already started and which could be accelerated in the new scenario. The same unease lurks on the American side of the Atlantic.