President Biden used his first public meeting with America’s European allies to describe a new struggle between the West and the forces of autocracy, declaring that “America is back”, while recognizing that the past four years have affected his power and influence.
His message emphasizing the importance of reinvigorating alliances and committing himself again to the defense of Europe was predictably well received at a session of the Munich Security Conference to which Biden spoke at the White House.
But there was also resistance, notably from French President Emmanuel Macron, who in his speech made a passionate defense of his concept of the United States’ “strategic autonomy”, arguing that Europe can no longer be overly dependent on the United States. your attention in Asia, especially in China.
And even Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, who will step down this year, moderated her praise for Biden’s decision to cancel plans to withdraw 12,000 American troops from the country with a warning that “our interests will not always converge”. It seemed to be a reference to Germany’s ambivalence about confrontation with China – an important market for its cars and other high-end German products – and to the ongoing battle with the United States over the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline for Russia.
But all three leaders seemed to recognize that their first virtual meeting was a time to celebrate the end of the “America First” era and for Mr. Macron and Mrs. Merkel to welcome Biden, a politician who they were well aware of his years as a senator and vice president.
And Biden took the opportunity to warn of the need for a common strategy to defend an internet-powered narrative, promoted by Presidents Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and Xi Jinping of China, that the chaos surrounding the American election was another sign of democratic weakness and decline.
“We must demonstrate that democracies can still serve our people in this changed world,” said Biden, adding, “We need to prove that our model is not a relic of history.”
For the president, a regular visitor to the conference even as a private citizen after serving as vice president, the speech was a kind of homecoming. Given the pandemic, the Munich conference was reduced to a videoconference lasting several hours. A brief previous closed meeting of the Group of 7 Allies in which Biden also attended, hosted this year by Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson, was also held by video.
The next summit in person is still planned for Britain this summer, if the pandemic allows.
Biden never named his predecessor, Donald J. Trump, in his comments, but formulated them around eliminating traces of Trumpism in the United States’ approach to the world. He celebrated his return to the Paris climate agreement, which took effect shortly before the meeting, and a new initiative, announced late on Thursday, to join Britain, France and Germany in Iran’s diplomatic engagement in a effort to restore the 2015 nuclear deal that Mr. Trump came out of.
But instead of detailing an agenda, Biden tried to recall the first principles that led to the Atlantic alliance and the creation of NATO in 1949, near the start of the Cold War.
“Democracy doesn’t just happen,” said the president. “We have to defend it. Strengthen it. Renew it. “
In a deliberate contrast to Mr. Trump, who spoke about NATO’s withdrawal and notoriously on several occasions refused to acknowledge the United States’ responsibilities under Article V of the alliance’s letter in helping members under attack, Mr. Biden The United States is ready to assume its responsibilities as the axis of the alliance.
“We will keep the faith” with the obligation, he said, adding that “an attack on one is an attack on all”.
But he also pressured Europe to think about challenges in a new way – different from the Cold War, even though the two biggest geostrategic opponents look familiar.
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“We must prepare together for a long-term strategic competition with China,” he said, naming “cyberspace, artificial intelligence and biotechnology” as the new territory for competition. And he defended the opposition to Russia – called Putin by name, with no title attached – citing in particular the need to respond to the SolarWinds attack targeting federal and corporate computer networks.
“Tackling Russian recklessness and hacking computer networks in the United States and across Europe and the world has become critical to protecting collective security,” said Biden.
The president avoided diving into the difficult question of how to make Russia pay a price without intensifying the confrontation. A cybernetic White House official told reporters this week that the scope and depth of the Russian invasion are still being studied, and officials are clearly struggling to find options to fulfill Biden’s commitment to make Putin pay a price for the attack.
But it was the dynamic with Mr. Macron, who has a habit of criticizing the NATO alliance for being close to “brain death” and no longer “pertinent” since the disappearance of the Warsaw Pact, that drew attention.
Macron wants NATO to act more as a political body, a place where European members have equivalent status to the United States and are less subject to the American tendency to dominate decision-making.
A Europe more capable of defending itself and more autonomous would make NATO “even stronger than before,” Macron insisted. He said that Europe should be “much more responsible for its own security”, increasing its defense spending commitments to “rebalance” the transatlantic relationship.
This is not a widely shared opinion among the many European states that do not want to spend the necessary money, and the nations of Central and Eastern Europe are unwilling to entrust their safety to anyone but the United States.
Mr. Macron also called for the renewal of NATO’s security capabilities to involve “a dialogue with Russia”. NATO has always said that it is open to better relations with Moscow, but that Russia is not interested, especially as long as international sanctions remain after Ukraine’s Crimea was taken, about seven years ago.
But Macron, speaking English to answer a question, also argued that Europe could not count on the United States as much as it has in recent decades. “We must take on more of the burden of our own protection,” he said.
In practice, it will take many years for Europe to build a defense arm to make it more self-sufficient. But Macron is determined to start now, just as he is determined to increase the European Union’s technological capabilities so that it can become less dependent on American and Chinese supply chains.
Biden, on the other hand, wants to deepen these supply chains – of hardware and software – among like-minded Western allies in an effort to lessen Chinese influence. He is preparing to propose a new joint project for European and American technology companies in areas such as semiconductors and the types of software that Russia exploited in the SolarWinds hack.
It was Merkel who focused on the complexities of dealing with China, due to her dual role as a competitor and necessary partner for the West.
“In recent years, China has gained global influence and, as partners and transatlantic democracies, we must do something to combat this,” said Merkel.
“Russia continually engages members of the European Union in hybrid conflicts,” she said. “Consequently, it is important that we present a transatlantic agenda in relation to Russia that, on the one hand, makes cooperative offers, but on the other hand, identifies the differences very clearly.”
While Biden announced that he would deliver on an American pledge to donate $ 4 billion to the campaign to accelerate the manufacture and distribution of coronavirus vaccines worldwide – a measure passed last year by a House led by Democrats and a Senate led by by Republicans – there were clear differences in approach during the meeting.
Stressing the importance that the European Union attaches to Africa, Mr. Macron called on Western nations to provide 13 million doses of vaccines to African governments “as soon as possible” to protect healthcare professionals.
He warned that if the alliance fails to do so, “our African friends will be pressured by their populations, and with good reason, to buy doses from the Chinese, Russians or directly from the laboratories.”
Vaccine donations reflect “a common desire to advance and share the same values,” said Macron. Otherwise, “the power of the West, of Europeans and Americans, will only be a concept, not a reality”.
Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization, on Friday also called on countries and drug manufacturers to help speed up the manufacture and distribution of vaccines worldwide, warning that the world could “be back to square one “if any countries went ahead with their vaccination campaigns and left others behind.
“Vaccine fairness is not only the right thing to do, it is also the smartest thing to do,” said Dr. Tedros at the Munich conference. He argued that the longer it would take to vaccinate populations in each country, the longer the pandemic would remain out of control.
Melissa Eddy, Elian Peltier and Mark Landler contributed reports.