As world leaders flock to Rome to participate in the G20 summit, President Joe Biden embarked on a trip aimed at reaffirming the international qualifications of the United States. He will meet with Pope Francis, his Catholic ally, on Friday (October 29).
After announcing a “historic” framework for a huge social spending plan, the president left Washington, although it remains to be seen whether it can win the support of legislators.
After weeks of fighting within the party, coupled with the decline in his personal rating, Biden hopes to use the two summits held in Europe this week-the G20 and the United Nations Glasgow climate negotiations-to prove his political influence.
In the face of authoritarian regimes, especially China, he considers himself the spokesperson of democracy.
But he started the trip in a more intimate way. After landing in Rome early on Friday, he will first go to the Vatican, which is expected to be a pleasant sit down with Pope Francis.
Biden is the second Catholic president in history. He is open to his faith and almost never misses Sunday Mass.
He has met with the leaders of 1.3 billion Catholics in the world three times, but this will be the first time they have been elected president at the age of 78.
Spokesperson Jen Psaki said on Wednesday that the White House hopes the talks will be “enthusiastic.”
Biden talked about the strength he drew from his faith and faced a series of bereavements-after his first wife and their daughter were killed in a car accident, his son Bo later died of cancer.
He and the Pope have a range of concerns, from poverty to climate change and the coronavirus pandemic.
However, if any leader raises the issue of the red button for abortion, there may be a quarrel.
Biden supports the right to choose, while the 84-year-old Francis criticized termination of pregnancy as “murder.”
Despite this, the Pope and the conservative bishops of the United States promoted communication with politicians who refused to support abortion rights-including Biden.
Charm offensive
After Francis, Biden crossed the Tiber River into the center of the Eternal City and met Prime Minister Mario Draghi-a man known as “Super Mario” who was responsible for reforming Italy after Covid-19 was devastated.
The G20 host is a former European Central Bank president who is known for saving the euro from a collapse. He plans to get debt-ridden and politically unstable Italy back on track, and Washington is paying close attention to him.
But even though Draghi is a rising star in European politics, Biden seems to have lost some of its light.
The president seemed confident in his $1.75 trillion social spending plan, hoping to use the G20 and COP26 climate summits to show the world “America is back.”
There is no doubt that he will boast of a package that includes “the most important investment in the history of the climate crisis”-550 billion U.S. dollars to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The veteran foreign policy expert is determined to distance himself from the unilateralism of former President Donald Trump and will seek to appease the enraged feathers.
After the chaotic withdrawal of troops in Afghanistan has angered American allies and the major dispute over nuclear-powered submarines, he will still have some work to do to build the fence.
He may need to keep his biggest charisma offensive for French President Emmanuel Macron, who will meet for the first time after a clash with a submarine on Friday.
After Australia abandoned a major agreement to buy French submarines last month, Paris was furious, saying it was negotiating a new defense agreement with the United States and Britain.
On Thursday, National Security Adviser Jack Sullivan told reporters along with the President that Biden’s meeting with Macron on Friday would “cover the waterfront of the problem” because of the emergence of security agreements reached between the United States and the United Kingdom and Australia. After the crack, the two are repairing the wall.
The meeting will discuss counter-terrorism in the Middle East, competition with China, economic, trade and technological issues.
The main topic of Saturday’s meeting between Biden, Macron, and the leaders of Germany and Britain will be the current state of Iran’s nuclear program.
Sullivan said that Biden will be committed to adopting a “common strategy and unity” on the Iran issue, but did not specify whether the leaders will discuss resuming negotiations with Tehran.
Sullivan said that the White House also hopes that Biden will meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Erdogan has stated that he hopes to discuss a suspended F-16 fighter jet deal with Washington.
Sullivan told reporters that Biden also hopes to reach a consensus with world leaders on alleviating bottlenecks in the supply chain at the forum hosted on Sunday.
The United States hopes to reach agreement on a new international commitment for vaccines at the meeting to prepare for future pandemics and climate change.
