(CN) — In a bid to regain the world's trust in American leadership, U.S. President Joe Biden kicked off a jam-packed weeklong visit to Europe with an announcement that the United States will buy 500 million vaccine doses for distribution to poorer countries.
Ahead of a G-7 meeting in Cornwall, Biden landed in England on Wednesday afternoon and gave a speech to American troops at the R.A.F. Mildenhall air force base where he laid out a vision of the U.S. working with other democracies to solve the world's most pressing problems, climate change chief among them.
His decision to surround himself with troops as he delivered a speech about the strength of democracies, American ingenuity and the importance of diplomacy also sent a clear message to Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom he will meet next Wednesday in Geneva in what will likely be the defining moment of his first foreign trip as president.
“We have to discredit those who believe that the age of democracy is over, as some of our fellow nations believe,” Biden said, insinuating that places like Russia and China are fostering autocratic regimes. “We have to expose as false the narrative that decrees of dictators can match the speed and scale of the 21st [century] challenges.”
Tensions between Russia and the U.S. are extremely high with the U.S. accusing Putin of sponsoring cyberattacks, ordering political assassinations, violating arms control treaties, squashing democracy at home and threatening to invade Ukraine. Likewise, Putin accuses the U.S. of a multitude of crimes and seeking to destabilize Russia. It remains uncertain how much the Geneva summit will help ease tensions.
Beside Putin, another figure hangs over this trip to Europe: The shadow of Biden's radical predecessor in the Oval Office, former U.S. President Donald Trump.
Biden's win in November came as a huge relief to European leaders and dispelled fears that America was turning away from its longstanding allies in Europe and dangerously taking a go-it-alone path while torpedoing the multilateral, diplomacy-first world order created in the wake of World War II and so cherished by Europeans.
Brick by brick, Biden is trying to rebuild a transatlantic alliance that Trump did so much to break apart. During his tenure, Trump questioned the need for NATO, spoke softly about Putin's aggressions, fueled tensions over trade with the European Union, praised the United Kingdom's exit from the EU and was preparing to remove American troops from Germany.
In the run-up to his summit in Geneva with Putin, then, this weeklong trip can be seen as a healing tour where Biden, an old hand at international diplomacy, does the rounds with European and NATO leaders.
On Thursday, Biden was to meet British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and announce that the U.S. will buy 500 million vaccine doses over the next year for distribution to poorer countries. This goodwill gesture to help the world's poorest is a major boost to the World Health Organization's efforts to vaccinate much of the world's population, the most vulnerable first.
“We have to end Covid-19, not just at home — which we’re doing — but everywhere,” Biden said. “There’s no wall high enough to keep us safe from this pandemic or the next biological threat we face — and there will be others.”
This act of so-called vaccine diplomacy by Biden can be seen as part of a larger ambition to prove that Trump's “America First” foreign-policy approach was an aberration and that “the United States is back” as a trusted leader and the strongest advocate for democracy and decency.
To achieve this goal, Biden seems to think that showing unwavering commitment to tackle climate change will go a long way in proving American global leadership. During his speech on Wednesday, he said climate change was the biggest threat facing the world.
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