Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), 57, took a shot at 78-year-old President Joe Biden, accusing him of paling around in Europe at the G7 and NATO summits, while the U.S. border situation deteriorates. Biden tried but failed to a get a G7 joint communiqué that criticized Russia and China for human rights abuses. No one at the G7 or NATO was prepared to put their necks on the line to satisfy Biden’s new Cold War with U.S. adversaries. European Union officials, led by 62-year-old European Commission President Ursula von der Leyean and 45-year-old European Council President Charles Michel refused to jump on Biden’s Cold War bandwagon, realizing the EU has strong business ties with Russi and China. Completing the $12 billion Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline with Germany, Russia now controls about 40% of the EU’s energy, not something Biden worries about 3,000 miles from Washington.
Jordan was especially critical of Biden for wasting time slapping backs in Europe while a growing border crisis dominates the headlines in the States. “While President Biden pals around with his buddies in Europe, the border crisis rages at home,” Jordan said, recognizing the stark difference on the border with Biden’s predecessor former President Donald Trump. Jordan was one of Trump’s biggest fans in Congress, finding little to talk about with Biden in office. Biden hoped he was welcomed at the U.K.-hosted G7 meeting in Carbis Bay, Cornwall England. All Biden could get from the G7 communiique was talk about the novel coronavirus global pandemic, guidance on climate change and looking at international laws governing online safety and hate speech. G7 delegates stayed clear of Biden’s new Cold War against Russia and China, looking for EU backing.
Biden hoped to get strong support for his June 16 Geneva summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Leading up the summit, Biden can’t figure out what’s his goal, to assert U.S. dominance over the Russian Federation or to seek, as Secretary of State Tony Blinken likes to say, a more predicable relationship. Biden’s acted intimidated heading into Geneva, nixing a traditional join press conference with Putin after the confidential summit. Biden’s been pushed to confront Putin on Russian meddling in U.S. elections and democracy, not to mention past-and-recent hacks of government-used software and recent rasomware attacks on the Colonial Pipeline and JBS meatpacking company. Biden’s been pushed in so many directions, nor knowing what direction to go in his meeting with Putin. Biden’s handlers are pushing him to challenge Putin on human rights abuses.
Biden hoped that going to the G7 and NATO, he’d be welcomed more than the Trump administration that demanded more concessions from NATO and the EU. Trump asked EU countries to pony up more cash when it came to defense budgets. Biden told European leaders that “America is back,” after four long years on unconventional foreign policy under Trump. No one at the G7 or NATO wanted to make any commitments to Ukraine, whose 43-year-old President Volodymyr Zelensky flat out asked NATO for membership, despite warning from Putin and the Kremlin. NATO’s Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg, let Biden know he’s not interested in confronting the Russian Federation on the battlefield. Nor is he interested in inviting Ukraine to membership, provoking Putin to take military action in eastern Ukraine’s Donbass region where Russian-speaking separatists want out of Kiev.
Biden wanted the EU to back his human rights crusade against Russia and China, bring up Russia’s treatment of dissident like 44-year-old Russian dissident Alexi Navalny or China’s battle with Muslim Uyghurs in China’s Xinjiang Western province. Biden tried the tough diplomacy on China March 18 in Anchorage, Alaska, only to watch China push back. China doesn’t want the U.S. meddling in its internal affairs, especially with Muslim Uyghurs, pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong or freedom activists in Taiwan. Whatever trade imbalance exists with China and the U.S., Trump did his best to renegotiate trade deals more favorable to the U.S. When it comes to Russia, Biden wants Putin to take forceful action against renegade Russian hackers. Putin may be willing to crack down on renegade hacking gangs but only if Biden parks his other complaints at the door.
Biden got a welcomed reception at the G7 and NATO but only to the extent Europeans can approach Russia and China as they see fit. Biden found out there’s no stomach in Europe for a confrontation with the Russia Federation or China, where there’s enough economic fallout from the global coronavirus pandemic to occupy their time. EU officials, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Counsel President Charles Michel, don’t want to follow the U.S. lead. Gone are the days w hen the U.S. led a post WW II world, rebuilding Europe after years of decimation. Europe has its own priorities and has no interest in joining Biden’s new Cold War with Russia and China. Biden only got so far at the G7 and NATO obliquely ripping Trump for his own brand of foreign policy. One thing’s for sure: Europe wants no part of Biden’s Cold War with Russia and China.
