Europeans should get used to it: even with Biden, it will first become the United States

Yes for sure, French President Emmanuel Macron answers a question posed by journalists at the G7 summit in Wales in June.

All the smiles, including those of the American president, seemed to convince the French president that Joe Biden had come to reassure his friends. After four years of difficult relations under the Trump administration, the United States has once again pledged to prioritize multilateralism and traditional alliances.

A few weeks later, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, a French speaker who grew up in Paris, embarked on a tour of Europe. America has no better friend in the world than Germany, He said during a stop in Berlin.

Almost two months after this fascinating operation, Washington’s Afghan problem management has raised questions in the European chancellors about this White House, which has promised them good relations.

I think it’s an open secret that it was poorly received, Said Roland Freudenstein, policy director at the Wilfried Martens Center for European Studies in Brussels.

This week, the governments of France, Germany and the United Kingdom made a request to the United States: to keep the question of creating a difficult evacuation operation at Kabul airport in Afghanistan beyond the August 31 deadline.

These European requests were in vain. President Biden reiterates his goal: The U.S. military will leave Afghan soil on August 31 if the Taliban allow the U.S. to complete its evacuation campaign.

You have helpless Europeans, Gerard Arroyo, former French ambassador to the United States, noted that despite his warm voice, President Biden confirmed that he was not committed to greater partnerships with his allies across the Atlantic.

The country’s foreign policy does not depend on the president. Obama, Trump and Biden, is the basic continuation. The method is clearly changing, The former diplomat adds, inspires the will of the United States Should no longer be a global policeman.

Foreign policy led by domestic policy

While Joe Biden has been widely criticized abroad and at home for withdrawing troops from Afghanistan, the decision to end the military presence in this country, an idea previously advocated by Donald Trump, is still supported by the majority of the American population.

For example, a Suffolk University survey conducted on behalf of USA Today, This week showed that while only 26% approved file management through the Biden Administration, 53% of them supported the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan.

Some elites want to see America as the leader of Western nations, but in reality Americans are isolated, self-centered, and that will not change., Explained Joseph de Weck, a researcher at the Foreign Policy Research Institute.

According to him, this episode reminds European countries that if they want to, they must take the means Manage an independent policy and make their own choices.

However, according to Roland Freudenstein of the Wilfried Martens Center for European Studies, without an increase in their defense budget, European leaders would not be able to make critical speeches against Washington without American support.

It is absurd to say that we Americans cannot be trusted and that we must stand up for ourselves. Good luck with that; It does not work, He says.

Despite being recently tested, Atlantic cooperation is particularly relevant to maintaining relations with Russia and China, to combat climate change.

In Europe, however, if the face and tone have changed over the past few weeks, the message across the Atlantic is the same: this is America first; The United States was the first.