Biden Abroad

President Biden has done a great deal to repair the damage with the United States' European allies.  He's doubled down on the U.S. commitment to fight climate change, pushed for more COVID vaccines to be delivered to the developing world, and reaffirmed solid trade practices with the European Union.  He's put the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in a better position to deal with exterior threats such as Russian military power and cyber-warfare.

Biden has at least made his case to the Group of Seven and to NATO for confronting China and withdrawing from Afghanistan, though both issues could cause more difficulty for him.  But there's another problem; the Europeans don't trust America.  They saw what happened on January 6 and they see what goes on in Washington now - a band of right-wing extremists that would even scare the French National Front could return Donald Trump or send a Rick Scott or  a Ron DeSantis to the White House in 2024 and every last bit of progress made by the Biden administration could unravel in an instant.  And the Republicans are already working with the electoral process to make sure that happens!  Unless, of course, Biden can handle as many domestic affairs as adroitly as foreign affairs.        

And tot be fair, the other members o the Group of Seven are more our allies than our friends because, let's face it, they have issues with us.  The British think we're rude, the French think we're uncultured, the Italians think we're puritanical hypocrites, the Germans and the Japanese still think we haven't forgiven them for World War II, and the Canadians . . . well, the Canadians treat us like the next-door neighbors on a court-style cul-de-sac-side street with only two houses on it.  They tolerate us because they have to.

Biden is working to show we're not all that bad, and he hopes to make that point all the more clear in his summit meeting today with Vladimir Putin - a topic I don't discuss much in this space because it makes my head hurt - and if Biden can come away with a sense of accomplishment by laying down the law with Putin over their differences,  he'll be halfway to his goal.  Wish him luck.