Evan Vucci/AP
President Joe Biden speaks at Gun Sense University, hosted by the Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund, at the Washington Hilton in Washington, DC on Tuesday, June 11.
Washington
CNN
—
When Joe Biden arrived at his first G7 summit in Cornwall, England, US officials in attendance said the newly inaugurated US president was greeted with enthusiasm and relief from other world leaders.
That summer, the leaders of the world’s richest countries got to see for themselves that Donald Trump’s chaotic four years were over. The unpredictable celebrity-turned-president who had alienated the United States in many ways had been replaced by a familiar American statesman vowing to restore and strengthen U.S. alliances and American leadership on the world stage.
When Biden arrives in Brindisi, Italy, on Wednesday for the final G7 meeting of his term, nearly three years later, the shadow of his predecessor will once again loom large.
“There was a sense of relief in the room that America was back and actually leading the charge, and that’s more true now than ever,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby said Tuesday. “The president’s message at the G7 in Cornwall was that we need to move forward united and demonstrate that democracy can still serve our people and serve people around the world. And over the past few years, we have done that.”
Trump’s possible return to the White House adds weight to questions about how successful Biden’s gamble on repairing U.S. alliances abroad has been. It’s sparking anxiety in capitals around the world as some governments look no further than Biden, eager to drum up support for the Republican front-runner.
Biden and other world leaders are gathering for three days at a luxury resort in the Mediterranean region of Puglia, a destination frequented by Hollywood celebrities and diplomats, to tackle issues including war and peace, a fragile economic recovery and competition with China.
Trump’s isolation from his fellow leaders was also evident the last time Italy hosted the G7 summit, in 2017. Sitting at a cliff-top resort in Sicily, Trump resisted calls to stay in the Paris climate accord. One memorable scene from the meeting was him riding behind the leaders in a golf cart while the rest of the group walked around a small square.
As the highly anticipated summit gets underway this year, Russia’s offensive against Ukraine, which began in early 2022, shows no signs of abating. As the conflict drags on, Biden’s slogans championing Ukraine’s fight for survival are meeting increasing sympathy and even resistance in parts of Washington.
A sizable faction of Republican lawmakers, rebelling in no small part over the rising costs of U.S. security assistance to Ukraine, delayed approval of the last of the U.S. aid packages for months. U.S. officials have publicly lamented the delays, arguing they hobbled Ukrainian forces at a crucial time in the war and allowed Russia to make important advances on the battlefield.
“Biden has spent the last four years trying to assuage the concerns of our allies. His message on the campaign trail and as president has been ‘America is back,'” said Rachel Rizzo, a senior fellow at the Europe Center. “And I think the question many leaders are asking themselves is, is that really the case? Because what we’re seeing in the United States is a serious fight in Congress over financial aid to Ukraine.”
Biden visited France last week to mark the 80th anniversary of the Normandy landings, and drew parallels between the United States and its allies standing up to Russian oppression in Ukraine and the fight against Nazi Germany in World War II.
“Isolation was not the answer 80 years ago and it’s not the answer today,” Biden said, vowing that “we won’t go away.”
Biden also publicly apologized to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky for recent delays in US security assistance to the country. Kirby said Biden and Zelensky will hold a press conference together in Italy during the G7 summit.
“We will take bold steps to support Ukraine’s fight for freedom and show President Putin that time is not on his side and that he cannot outlive us,” Kirby said.
Biden has repeatedly pointed to the Ukraine war as a test of the strength and value of the NATO alliance, but the conflict is a test not only for him but also for many of his colleagues back home. Among the G7 leaders gathering in Italy this week are French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who both suffered political defeats to the far right in this weekend’s European Parliament elections.
Despite these headwinds at home, leaders of the Group of Seven are racing against time to approve $50 billion in loans for Ukraine. The Biden administration is leading a campaign to persuade G7 leaders to agree to a plan it sees as essential to giving Ukraine a chance to improve its prospects on the battlefield.
The ultimate goal is to iron out the trickiest financing details over the next few days so that an agreement can be announced as part of a G7 leaders’ communique over the weekend. But questions about the modalities of such a program, particularly the exact form of payments and repayment guarantees, are still being ironed out.
A source familiar with the planning for the summit said the leaders are expected to unite on concerns about a “resurgent” Russian military presence and the threat it poses not only to Ukraine’s future but also to European, NATO and transatlantic security more broadly.
The leaders are also expected to discuss U.S. concerns about what they consider to be Chinese manufacturing overcapacity and Beijing’s flooding of global markets with products in excess of existing demand, a key focus of last year’s G7 meeting. U.S. officials have consistently expressed concern about the global economy’s over-reliance on Chinese products, and reducing China’s economic dominance has been a key feature of President Biden’s first term foreign policy.
Josh Lipsky, senior director at the Center for Geopolitics and Economics, told reporters on a conference call previewing this year’s summit that the invitations to world leaders who are not full members of the G7 alliance speak to the importance of the moment.
This week’s meetings are due to include Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, newly inaugurated for a third term, Pope Francis, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Argentine President Javier Milley and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
“This isn’t just a G7 meeting, this is a meeting of the top 10 economies in the world excluding China,” Lipsky said. “Everything about it conveys a sense of urgency and high stakes around this G7. And it feels like this is the last chance to do something big before things change dramatically.”
