display
America is back! ”Exclaimed President Joe Biden.
“Diplomacy is back!” In his first speech on foreign policy immediately afterwards, he unilaterally announced that the United States would no longer supply the Saudis with weapons to continue the proxy war against Iran in Yemen.
Anyone who is happy about an America that wants to get involved in world politics again, as Biden announced, must know: This America will not be a comfortable partner.
If you listened carefully when Biden listed the USA's most important friends, you noticed that the European Union was as absent as Israel.
And that when listing the most important challenges facing his government, Iran was missing, as was Islamist terror.
Since Biden, unlike his erratic predecessor, can put every word on the gold scales, these are important clues.
Europeans will probably have to take care of their neighborhood themselves.
As bait for the Germans - in fourth place of the most important allies of the USA behind Canada, Mexico and Great Britain - Biden announced that he would stop the withdrawal of troops from Germany for the time being.
Good.
The American presence underscores the US readiness to provide military support to Western Europe in the event of a Russian attack.
Biden will demand consideration for this advance service.
display
Unlike his predecessor, Biden found clear words against Russia.
He called China a "global rival".
But Russia is an opponent of democracy.
Biden has not forgotten that the EU, at German insistence, concluded an investment agreement with China without consulting Biden immediately after his election, nor has Biden forgotten the fact that Germany is sticking to the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which will make Europe dependent on Russian gas.
Biden's reference to the Marshall Plan, which saved Western Europe after the Second World War instigated by Germany, must be understood as a response to Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, who, in a touch of megalomania after the storm on the Capitol, offered the US a joint “Marshall Plan for Democracy” .
Maas, who launched an anti-Trumpist “Alliance for Multilateralism” two years ago amid great fanfare, will have to ask himself what the German government will bring to the “Summit for Democracy”, which Biden wants to convene as a counter-event.
Biden is right.
Diplomacy is back.
That means: give and take.
What does Germany have to offer the new US administration besides windy words?