US President Joe Biden departs for the United Kingdom on Wednesday on his first international trip since taking office. The eight-day mission aims to rebuild trans-Atlantic ties that had strained during the Trump era.
The visit also is aimed to reframe relations with Russia. It represents a test of the Democratic president’s capability to repair and manage relationships with major allies who went disenchanted with the then-President Donald J Trump’s trade tariffs and backing out of international treaties.
Biden, in an opinion article in the Washington Post, said that the democratic alliances and institutions that moulded so much of the last century prove its capacity against modern-day threats and adversaries. He said that this week in Europe, the US has a chance to prove it.
His summit with Russian President Putin on the 16th of June in Geneva. The is a capstone to the trip, an opportunity to directly raise concerns with the US with Putin about ransomware attacks coming from Russia. Along with that Moscow’s aggression against Ukraine and a lot of different issues will be discussed.
Biden is to make his first stop at the seaside village of St. Ives of Cornwall where he will take part in the G7 summit. The meeting will be dominated by vaccine diplomacy, climate, trade, and an initiative to build infrastructure in the developing world. US officials term that effort as a way to hit back at China’s growing influence.
Biden may face force to do more to share US vaccines with the less deprived countries after an initial pledge of 20 million doses promised last week.
His aim for a global minimum tax on multinational organisations faces a huge resistance at home. G7 finance ministers accepted before the summit to seek a global minimum tax rate of about 15 per cent.
