• Summit NATO turns to Joe Biden to heal Donald Trump's wounds

A few seconds and a few steps walking together. This is what the long-awaited bilateral meeting publicized by Moncloa since last week between the President of the Government,

Pedro Sánchez

, and the President of the United States,

Joe Biden

,

has consisted

of

. A brief meeting, they announced, a meeting to discuss issues, leaked his team. And indeed both leaders have been seen today in the family photo of the heads of State and Government of NATO in Brussels, the first of the North American since he arrived at the White House. But the

scarce half minute

that both have shared exchanging a few words on the way to the main room is what the Spanish Executive announced, publicized and now celebrates.

"The President of the Government and the President of the United States have had a brief conversation after the family photo. As previously stated, both wanted to greet each other, meet personally and establish a first contact. That is how their respective teams had agreed. Among other things, it had been agreed that his greeting was captured by the cameras as proof of the excellent relationship that exists between both countries, "explain sources from Moncloa.

Mid-morning, about to start the meeting in Brussels, the Spanish delegation admitted that it was trying to coordinate agendas to balance the meeting, which already gave clues to the expected informality.

Two real bilateral meetings

are on the official White House agenda for the day

.

The first, at noon, with the Prime Ministers or Presidents of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The

Baltics

, along with Poland, are the most sensitive Europeans about the position of the US and NATO vis-à-vis Russia, and have always had a particularly strong (or dependent, depending on how you look at it) link with Washington. The second formal meeting scheduled is that of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, scheduled together after the Summit ends.

In the White House they are very used to this phenomenon. All world leaders, at the national, regional or local level, go out of their way to get a few minutes with the US president and a photo, and the NATO Summits are no exception. Any image chatting with Biden, as before with Obama (it was not exactly the same with Trump) is worth its weight in gold and serves to

monopolize attention

for hours or days. Moncloa is aware and that is why since last week it has been 'heating up' the moment.

On the sidelines of the Summits (valid for those of the Atlantic Alliance, for those of the EU, the United Nations, the G20 or any other mass event) there are always movements. Bilateral, trilateral, group meetings. There are them in the offices of the delegations in the institution or in the gardens. There is a very illustrative photo of the G7 this weekend in which

Angela Merk

el,

Emmanuel Macron

,

Mario Draghi, Ursula von der Leyen

and

Charles Michel

chatted relaxed at a terrace table coordinating the position of the EU.

The best example of the most serious bilaterals, the official ones, is that Sánchez met Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday at the British headquarters in Brussels. A room, a table and eight people. On the Spanish side, the president, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Arancha González Laya; that of Defense, Margarita Robles. And the Spanish ambassador to the Alliance, Miguel Fernández Palacio. "This morning I met with Prime Minister Johnson. An appointment in which we addressed the need to continue strengthening bilateral relations, deepening in areas such as security and defense, and promoting the agreement between Spain and the UK regarding Gibraltar" Sánchez wrote on his Twitter account.

There are also other types of bilateral meetings, but more informal. And the US is the great hoarder of petitions.

Biden does not have time to meet for five or 10 minutes with the 30 leaders of NATO

, but he can arrange a brief meeting, standing most of the time, in a corridor, a garden, a more or less quiet corner. Enough for a greeting and a presentation to a head of state or government that you do not know. And a photo or video. A few words of greeting and welcome, a couple of courtesy phrases about the country or some propitious element (such as a sporting event), a memory for an authority or mutual friend and usually reciprocal invitations to visit the country or more or less vague commitments to organize official visits in the future when there is opportunity.

But from no perspective, nor with the greatest generosity in the world, can it be described as a meeting, a bilateral exchange, a meeting or even a courteous exchange walking shoulder to shoulder babbling a few words during a hundred meters of corridor with the president of the first power of the globe. The Government assured that it would be a meeting of substance, and not a

mere formal greeting,

and the reality could not be more different.

Spain has offered to organize the next NATO Summit in Spain, according to Moncloa, a perfect hook for a first contact, especially when our country is second from the tail in the Defense investment table.

The commitment is 2% and the Government is only at 1.07% for now.

But it is impossible that in those four broken sentences of courtesy something more than an introductory greeting could be addressed.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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