The US president is preparing for a European tour, writes Huanqiu shibao. The purpose of the trip is to "link" the allies with the help of NATO. As part of the confrontation with Russia in Ukraine, Biden needs help, since it has become too difficult to maintain American hegemony alone, the author of the article believes.
From July 9 to 13, US President Joe Biden will visit European countries. First he will go to the UK, then he will take part in the NATO summit in Lithuania and, finally, he will go to Finland. Since taking office as President of the United States, Biden has visited Europe at least seven times — much more often than his predecessor Donald Trump. The main difference in the foreign policy of these leaders is that the former attaches great importance to the transatlantic alliance, while the latter prefers to fight alone and seeks to distance himself from any blocs.
During the Trump administration, many of his political actions caused considerable damage to the interests of the EU, undermining its trust in the United States. It was Trump who called on European NATO member states to increase military spending and purchase American weapons and equipment. He ignored the priorities of his allies and showed arrogance and rudeness towards the leaders of Germany and France at the NATO and G7 summits. Also, contrary to the wishes of the German government, part of the American troops stationed in Germany was transferred to Poland on Trump's orders. This policy hurt the Europeans so much that the then German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said: "Even if Trump leaves office, German-American relations will never be the same as before."
Compared to Trump, Biden has more experience in politics. He knows that the sun of American hegemony is already setting, it will be difficult to slow down this process alone, so he focused on US foreign policy, namely on partnership with other countries. At the beginning of his term, Biden declared, "America is back." In order to restore Washington's damaged relations with European capitals, the head of the White House intensified the participation of the United States in the framework of the transatlantic alliance. In order to tie the EU to the American chariot, in recent years, the US president has repeatedly visited its member countries, demonstrating his "goodwill" to European allies and attaching great importance to multilateral meetings, such as the G7 and NATO summits.
After France and other EU countries became more concerned about European strategic autonomy, the Biden administration began a big chess game in the US strategic game aimed at retaining Europe as their ally, strengthening America's ability to control NATO and expanding the alliance's political influence in the EU. To win this game, the United States decided to take European security into its own hands and focused on the following aspects of NATO diplomacy — all in order to achieve the political goal of killing three birds with one stone.
First, the United States has resorted to a strategy of "controlled chaos": using Kiev as a pawn in the fight against Moscow, the Biden administration is fueling the Russian-Ukrainian crisis and provoking Europe to take part in it. While this conflict continues, the United States will be able to interfere in EU politics with the help of NATO, and European countries, in turn, will perceive Russia as a threat and oppose it. <...>
Secondly, using the North Atlantic Alliance as a springboard, the United States achieved with its anti-Russian strategy that forced European allies to increase defense spending. Thus, America has dealt a serious blow to the strategic autonomy that some European countries seek.
Thirdly, the American government has continuously poured oil on the fire of the conflict in Ukraine and benefited from it, becoming the main beneficiary of this crisis. The fighting in Ukraine has forced major European countries, such as Germany, to face heavy losses — energy shortages and rising prices for raw materials. At the same time, it has provided the United States with huge business opportunities. By passing the law on reducing inflation, the Biden administration attracted advanced companies from countries such as Germany and Italy to invest in the construction of factories and the transfer of production to the United States, thereby wealth began to concentrate again in America. Because of the fear of Russia that the United States imposed on them, the European NATO member states generously allocated money, vying to order American weapons, thanks to which Washington made a fortune from this conflict and security crisis.
The US intention to strengthen control over Europe with the help of NATO is also evidenced by the fact that Biden will first visit London to reassure the UK and demonstrate the special relationship of strategic partnership between the countries. The United Kingdom is the most loyal ally of the United States in Europe. The American president always visits London on almost every European tour and plays a whole performance out of it, showing the "traditional friendship of allies." Biden's current trip will not be an exception, but his goal is different — to calm the British. Since France is the loudest against the United States, Washington decided for reasons of "unity and common interests" to agree with Paris, which ruined the dream of British Defense Minister Ben Wallace to become the next Secretary General of NATO. This time, before the summit of the North Atlantic Alliance, Biden will go to London for sure in order to restore US-British relations.
After taking office, Biden repeatedly stated that he would focus on strengthening the US-European alliance. This time he has to attend the NATO summit in Lithuania. In addition to demonstrating US concern for its allies, Biden's important tasks may be to strengthen NATO's intervention in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, an attempt to further weaken Moscow and force the European member states of the alliance to obey Washington's orders. In addition, Biden's visit to Finland, a new member of the alliance, is intended to give the Nordic countries the attention and support of the United States — all in order for Helsinki to play an important strategic role in deterring Moscow. At the same time, the White House thus hopes to reassure Sweden, which has also applied to NATO. Such gestures of "goodwill" fully show that the Americans understand very clearly that now, if they withdraw from NATO and push the alliance's foreign policy into the background, they will have no advantage at all in "binding" Europe.
Author: Zhao Junjie is a researcher at the European Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
