USA absent from global negotiation!!!
[An opinion piece on the G20’s Session 3]
Joe Biden promised America was back on the world stage but attending the G20 meeting tells a different story; one of absent American leadership.
Joe Biden promised he would end the divide between Americans, look for unity, and build back better. However, this is not how he arrived in Rome today for the meeting of the G20. The Joe Biden that arrived was a tired one, with an economy stifled by a ramping inflation, a border more in crisis than ever with uncontrollable flows of refugees, an energy crisis that sees gas prices destroying the livelihood of Americans, the worst military defeat since the fall of Saigon and a political agenda combated by his own party. Presidents that do not do good at home usually do not good abroad, and this seems to be the case here.
While Americans are worried about the ever-growing reach of GAFFAs on our society, one would expect the current administration to bring those topics to a G20 dedicated to connectivity and social inclusion in a digital economy. But not Biden, because his voters benefit for the moment of those tech giants. Living in a world where the Mullahs of Iran and the Taliban are talking freely on Twitter but where President Trump is banned does not seem to bother Biden. Missed are also the opportunities to force the King of Saudi Arabia to produce more oil and ease the burden of middle-class Americans families. Instead of fixing those challenges the Harris-Biden administration wants to finance broadband access for poor countries that send us migrants. 25% of Americans have trouble to have access to good broadband, but Biden prefers to help countries that might host terrorists rather than Americans.
A striking feature of this G20 is also the absence of initiatives coming from President Biden. While president Xi brings many proposals to the floor and connects with the youth by quoting Drake, and Macron attempts to fill the void left by the departure of Angela Merkel, Biden sits on the side-lines of history and condemns America in the same process. A good counter-example for Biden would be UK prime minister Boris Johnson, who - never satisfied - asks what they have achieved for unemployment, and how they can create a new digital economy that empowers traditional businesses. With a falling approval rate, and a vice-president committing more and more faux-pas, Biden could learn a thing or two from Johnson.
The verdict is thus as follow, after a whole year of opportunities to demonstrate his leadership capabilities Joe Biden is taking a nap while the world moves on. Retracting America from its involvement and commitments on the world stage, nothing great comes from self-afflicted isolation. What made America great was its capacity to lead the world, however with Democrat leaders becoming more and more passive the future of this reality remains uncertain. A good example of that is the Build Back Better agenda of President Biden, which is just a soulless copy of President Trump’s multiple initiatives on infrastructure. America is still here but this G20 will not mark its absence on the world stage.
Reported by Matthieu Dupraz