Biden builds bridges after turbulent Trump era

Assessing the prospects for the transatlantic relationship under the Biden administration, Ian Bond, director of foreign policy at the Centre for  European Reform, cautioned that, even after the often turbulent Trump era, NATO and EU colleagues “should not get carried away” by the new man in the White House.

Bond says, “Biden is above all an American politician, whose primary goal is to look after the interests of his voters. At NATO, as with trade policy, Biden has not been quite the antithesis of Trump that Europeans hoped for.” He added that on China, the relationship between the EU and the new administration got off to a “bad start” but has since improved. 

China certainly emerged during the visit as public enemy number one for the US. Bond says if Biden wants to “avoid the return of Trumpism; he needs to be able to show that his European policy is delivering tangible security and prosperity advantages for ordinary Americans. The traditional souvenirs of an American president’s European trip – a couple of 40-page summit declarations – will not be good enough.”