Monique Mulima
Last week marked the start of U.S. President Biden’s first overseas trip as President. Biden’s trips were marked with many important meetings, such as the G7 summit, NATO summit, and with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
President Biden’s trip began when he and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden arrived in Suffolk, UK to visit and speak to American Air Force troops based there. During his speech Biden teased what was to follow in the rest of his trip, saying, “I’m headed to the G7, then to the NATO ministerial and then to meet with Mr. Putin to let him know what I want him to know.”
“I’m headed to the G7, then to the NATO ministerial and then to meet with Mr. Putin to let him know what I want him to know.”
G7 Summit
The President and First Lady then continued on to Cornwall for the G7 summit. President Biden met with world leaders from the G7 countries including, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Italy, and the European Union and Commission.
Combatting China was a large topic of discussion at the summit. To improve their strategic standing with China, the President and other G7 leaders at the summit committed to the Build Back Better Partnership (B3W) with a focus on improving infrastructure in the developing world. Their focus will be in the areas of “climate, health and health security, digital technology, and gender equity and equality.”
The Covid-19 pandemic was also discussed by the G7 leaders. At the summit G7 countries committed to providing an additional 1 billion vaccines to countries in need starting this summer. This was with the goal of addressing vaccine inequality globally.
One of Biden’s goals for this summit was to repair America’s international standing following the damage caused by the Trump administration. One reporter asked Biden if he believed if America was back following this summit, a question which Biden asked French President Macron to answer. Macron replied saying, “Yes definitely. It’s great to have a U.S. president who’s part of the club and very willing to cooperate,” seemingly showing that this summit had been successful for rehabilitating the reputation of the U.S. on the world stage.
After meeting with the G7, President and Dr. Biden then met with the Queen among other members of the royal family. Biden also said that he and the Queen discussed the Russian and Chinese Presidents during their meeting.
It’s great to have a U.S. president who’s part of the club and very willing to cooperate.
NATO Summit
Following his time in England, Biden continued on to Brussels, Belgium for the NATO summit. At the NATO summit Biden met with leaders of the 30 allied nations to discuss topics of global security.
Russia’s breaches of international commitments were largely discussed at the summit. NATO members called on Russia to withdraw its military from Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia, and called on Russian Intelligence to stop interfering in democratic processes in Russia and abroad.
Another topic at the NATO summit was discussing ways to reduce and address terrorism globally. Part of this discussion was the withdrawal of NATO troops from Afghanistan. After 20 years of NATO military operations in Afghanistan, the U.S. has announced that they will be fully withdrawing by September 11, 2021. The NATO members looked at plans for maintaining peace in the region post-withdrawal.
The summit concluded seemingly successfully with NATO members recommitting to cooperation and the NATO 2030 agenda, including addressing issues of climate change, cyber security, and challenging security threats from Russia and China.
Biden-Putin Meeting
Concluding his first overseas trip, President Biden met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Geneva, Switzerland. This meeting had been long anticipated with Biden spending much of his trip prior to this discussing Russia with U.S. allies.
The meeting resulted in a commitment to extend the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START), which aims to reduce and limit nuclear arms. Biden also discussed with Putin issues of human rights abuses, concerns about Putin’s political opponent Aleksey Navalny and two imprisoned Americans in Russia. Biden also brought up issues of democracy, press freedom, cyber security, and security in the Middle East .
According to President Biden, there were no threats issued during the meeting from either side, but he did make it clear to Russia that there would be consequences for Russia if they continued to breach international commitments.
Although the Biden-Putin meeting addressed many important issues, it resulted in few concrete commitments. The greatest result from the meeting was the beginning of discussions between the two leaders and a commitment to continue strategic discussions.
Overall, Biden’s first overseas trip functioned to recommit the U.S. to global cooperation and show the U.S. once again as a global leader.
Featured image courtesy of Dwinslow on Pixabay. Image license found here. No changes were made to this image.
Monique Mulima
Hi I'm Monique. I have a Bachelor's Degree in Communication from Ryerson University. After graduating, I moved from Toronto, Canada to London, UK. I am freelance journalist and I am passionate about politics and current affairs.