US President Joe Biden did not need to do much on his first European tour this week. Just being there was good enough for the feel-good factor to return after four disruptive years under former president Donald Trump.

Nonetheless, the challenges that Biden discussed with world leaders at the G7 summit in Britain, the NATO summit, the European-American summit in Brussels and the summit with the Russian President Vladimir Putin in Geneva were all very pressing, including the unprecedented world health crisis due to Covid-19, global warming, fragile economic conditions, geopolitical tensions between the US and China and Russia, international terrorism and cyber-attacks.

All these are urgent issues, but many believe that Biden’s priority on his European tour was China and how to contain it and limit its international influence, which the US sees as a threat to its position at the top of the international system.

NATO leaders on Monday declared China for the first time to be a “security challenge” and said that it was working to undermine the global order, a message in sync with Biden’s desire to confront Beijing on trade, military and human-rights practices.

In the summit statement, the leaders said that China’s goals and “assertive behaviour present systemic challenges to the rules-based international order and to areas relevant to alliance security.”

They expressed concerns about what they said were China’s “coercive policies,” the opaque ways it was modernising its armed forces, and its use of disinformation. “We know that China does not share our values... we need to respond together as an alliance,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said during the summit. 

White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said that China would feature in the NATO communique “in a more robust way than we’ve ever seen before.” It was a PR success for Washington, but there are still big differences between the Biden administration and allies like France, Germany and the UK that seek to engage with China and not to confront it in a new cold war.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said NATO’s decision to name China as a threat “shouldn’t be overstated” because Beijing, like Russia, was also a partner in some areas. China is Germany’s top trading partner, and she said it was important to “find the right balance.”

France’s President Emmanuel Macron urged the alliance not to let China distract it from what he saw as pressing issues facing NATO, including the fight against terrorism and security issues related to Russia. “I think it is very important not to scatter our efforts and not to have biases in our relation to China,” Macron said.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he did not want a new “cold war” with China, calling it “a gigantic fact in our lives.” Asked if he shared Biden’s opinion that China was a threat that NATO had not taken seriously, he replied that “I don’t think anybody around the table today wants to descend into a new cold war with China.”

As expected, Biden used his first appearance at a NATO summit meeting to renew the US military commitment to the 30-country alliance. He sat down with the organisation’s secretary-general and underscored the US commitment to Article 5 of the Alliance charter, which spells out that an attack on any member is an attack on all.

“Article 5 we take as a sacred obligation,” Biden said. “I want NATO to know America is there.”

The NATO leaders also took a swipe at Russia in their communique, deploring what they consider to be its aggressive military activities and its war games near the borders of NATO countries as well as repeated violations of airspace by Russian planes.

They said that Russia had ramped up “hybrid” actions against member countries by attempts to interfere in elections, political and economic intimidation, disinformation campaigns and “malicious cyber-activities.”

“Until Russia demonstrates compliance with international law and its international obligations and responsibilities, there can be no return to ‘business as usual,’” they said.

“I’m going to make clear to President Putin that there are areas where we can cooperate, if he chooses,” Biden told reporters. “And if he chooses not to cooperate and acts in a way that he has in the past relative to cybersecurity and other activities, then we will respond, we will respond in kind.”

Biden said he was not focused on whether he could “trust” the Russian president, but he was hoping to be able to find areas where he can work with him while laying out “red lines” in other areas.

“It’s not about trusting; it’s about agreeing,” Biden said. “When you write treaties with adversaries, you don’t say, ‘I trust you.’ You say, ‘this is what I expect.’”

While Europe is looking to the results of the Biden-Putin meeting, what it hopes for most is a gradual change in Russian policies that Europeans see as a threat to their security.

One British diplomat told Al-Ahram Weekly that a single summit meeting would not change the dynamics of the relationship between Moscow and the West, but it could lay the foundation for change.

“We are still at the beginning of the Biden presidency, and I think there are possibilities to bridge the gap with Moscow on a large number of issues. But let’s be clear that we are still taking the first step and the possibilities of failure are the same as the possibilities of success.”

On the sidelines of the NATO summit, Biden also met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at a time when relations between Washington and Ankara are going through difficulties. They discussed a range of issues from bilateral relations, US sanctions on Ankara, Syria and Libya, and Eastern Mediterranean tensions.

Erdogan gave no indication after the meeting that Ankara’s deal with Moscow to purchase the S-400 missile system, triggering unprecedented US sanctions against a NATO ally, would be reversed.

“It was a very fruitful and sincere meeting,” Erdogan told reporters, adding that the two allies would continue to negotiate on a range of issues. Biden said the meeting with Erdogan was productive, adding that he was confident the US would “make real progress with Turkey.”

Some might judge Biden’s first European outing as a triumph of style over substance.

The language, the atmosphere and the body language were all in harmony, even if the outcomes were not as hoped for.

Green campaigners and anti-poverty groups said the G7 meeting has failed to address the challenges facing the world. The final communique contained no early timetable to eradicate coal-fired emissions to tackle the climate emergency and offered only one billion extra coronavirus vaccines for the world’s poor over the next 24 months, even though the World Health Organisation (WHO) says that the world needs 11 billion doses to stop the spread of Covid-19.

The British charity Oxfam’s head of inequality policy Max Lawson commented that “never in the history of the G7 has there been a bigger gap between their actions and the needs of the world. We don’t need to wait for history to judge this summit a colossal failure. It is plain for all to see.”

*A version of this article appears in print in the 17 June, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly