“The United States is back,” President Joe Biden said on his arrival in the United Kingdom on Wednesday, the first leg of a European tour in which he must announce that his country will donate 500 million Pfizer vaccines against COVID-19 to other nations.
“We are going to make it clear that the United States is back and that the democracies of the world are united to face the most difficult challenges,” he said in a speech to American troops stationed at the British Mildenhall airbase, where the presidential plane had landed shortly before. Air Force One coming from Washington.
Making a firm defense of democracy in the face of autocracy, and a call for consensus and collaboration, he affirmed that he is “committed to leading with strength, defending our values and fulfilling our people.”
And he warned Russia that although the United States does not seek conflict, it will respond firmly against any type of attack.
At the climax of this first trip, Biden is scheduled to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin next Wednesday in Geneva.
But first, he will hold a bilateral meeting this Thursday with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
The two leaders plan to agree at their first meeting on a new “Atlantic Charter”, modeled after the one signed by their predecessors Roosevelt and Churchill, taking into account the threat of cyberattacks and global warming, Downing Street said.
According to a statement released by the British government, Johnson and Biden, meeting for the first time in person, will express shared commitments on values such as democracy and free trade but also on concrete issues, such as combating the threat of cyberattacks, the pandemic or climate change.
The two leaders will also reach specific agreements, such as the creation of a joint work unit to find a way to resume “as soon as possible” and “safely” travel between the United Kingdom and the United States, hampered by the pandemic, indicates the note.
Then it will participate from Friday to Sunday in the G7 summit in Cornwall, in the southwest of England, where climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic will be some of the priorities.
Ahead of the meeting, the London head of government has stated that, in the face of challenges such as the pandemic, “cooperation between the United Kingdom and the United States, the closest partners and the best allies, will be crucial for the future of the stability and prosperity of the world. “
More vaccines for the world
As reported on Wednesday by the New York Times and the Washington Post , the president must announce there that the United States will buy 500 million doses of the vaccine against covid-19 from Pfizer / BioNTech to deliver them to other countries.
Much criticized for its delay in sharing its vaccines with the rest of the world, the White House is now trying to take the lead in this matter.
“The United States is committed to working on international immunization with the same sense of urgency that we have shown at home,” Biden said before leaving Washington.
According to the New York newspaper, the first 200 million doses would be donated this year and the remaining 300 million in 2022. The Pfizer / BioNTech serum requires two doses for complete vaccination.
Recovery from the pandemic will be one of the central topics on the agenda of the meeting of this elite group of the most industrialized countries (the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Japan).
The abysmal disparity in access to vaccines between developed countries and those with fewer resources has prompted urgent calls from international organizations such as the World Bank or the World Health Organization (WHO) to strengthen distribution among economies. Developing.
In the United States and the United Kingdom, more than 50% of the population has received at least one dose, while in the African continent only 2% of its inhabitants have been inoculated.
Most of it through Covax, the WHO-sponsored program, of which 25 million would be delivered this June to various Asian, African, and Latin American and Caribbean countries.
With Queen Elizabeth and with Putin
Following the G7, Biden will be greeted by Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle on Sunday.
The tenant of the White House will then go to Brussels and hold numerous bilateral meetings.
“My trip to Europe is an opportunity for the United States to mobilize the world’s democracies,” said the man who, since coming to power, insists on his desire to be fully involved in world affairs.
Yet after Donald Trump’s tenure, allies “will receive these reassuring words with a bit of skepticism,” says Suzanne Maloney of the Washington-based Brookings think tank.
“Biden’s willingness to reconnect with them will have to overcome not only the scars of the past four years, but also the lingering questions about the health of American democracy,” he writes.
The purpose of the trip is “to make it clear to Putin and China that Europe and the United States are close allies,” said the 78-year-old president on this demanding eight-day trip.
“He has been preparing for it for 50 years,” said his spokesperson, Jen Psaki, alluding to the long political career of the president, who first entered the Senate in 1972. “He knows some of those leaders, including President Putin, for decades, “he added.
With issues like Ukraine, Belarus, the fate of the jailed Russian opponent Alexei Navalni, and cyberattacks, the debates are expected to be tough and difficult.
Cybersecurity will be “a topic of our discussion,” Biden said.
The White House, which alternates conciliatory messages and warnings, insists its expectations are modest. The only advanced goal is to make relations between the two countries more “stable and predictable.”
“The problem is that Putin doesn’t necessarily want a more stable and predictable relationship,” says Alexander Vershbow, a former US diplomat and former NATO number two.
The US presidency gave few details about the development of the face-to-face with the Russian president. He only hinted that, unlike what happened with Trump in Helsinki in 2018, a joint press conference between the two was not on the agenda.
On a lighter subject, before boarding Biden called on reporters present to “pay attention to cicadas,” the insects that currently invade the United States, after one of them landed just on his elbow seconds before.
The day before, another plane that had to transport White House reporters covering the tour delayed its takeoff, because a cloud of cicadas had invaded its engines.
With information from AFP and EFE
