US President Joe Biden made his first major global presentation on Friday and sought to reinstate the United States as the “trusted” leader of the West. With a multilateralist approach and with the return to traditional alliances, Biden focused on climate change, on a possible renegotiation of a nuclear pact with Iran and, above all, on burying the “America first” approach of his predecessor Donald Trump.
In a virtual speech to the annual meeting of the Security Conference in Munich, Biden asked the world’s rulers to demonstrate together that “democracies can still deliver” and that “our model is not a relic of history.”
With a message radically opposed to that of his predecessor, the head of state assured his traditional allies that they could once again have confidence in Washington’s leadership.
“I am sending a clear message to the world: America is back. The transatlantic alliance is back, ”he said. “The United States is determined to re-engage with Europe, to consult with you, to regain our position of trusted leadership,” he added.
The president’s return to the global arena was accompanied by a highly symbolic act, the reincorporation of the United States into the Paris Agreement on climate and the promise to make the fight against global warming a top priority of his administration. The world’s leading power and second largest emitter of carbon after China, thus became part of the 2015 pact in which practically all countries commit to reducing polluting emissions and which had been abandoned by Trump with the argument that it was unfair and slowing down the American economy.
“We can no longer delay or do the minimum to address climate change,” Biden said at the conference. “This is a global existential crisis. We will all suffer the consequences ”.
The American president who announced to the world on Friday that the US has returned. Reuters
The new president’s commitment is to make America’s energy sector pollution-free by 2035 and move to a zero-emissions economy by 2050.
Biden also proclaimed the return to the world of the transatlantic alliance. “The United States is determined to re-engage with Europe, to consult with you, to regain our position of trusted leadership,” he added.
Biden spoke earlier with leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) – a forum of rich democratic countries-, and said that his government will once again prioritize the building of alliances, in contrast to Trump’s isolationist policies and his speech often at odds with the traditional American partners.
“Our associations endured and grew over the years because they are rooted in the richness of our shared democratic values. They are not transactional. They are not to get something out of it, ”Biden said, referring to the Republican mogul’s emphasis on pointing out allies as economic rivals.
For this reason, he considered collective force as the only way to be successful when the global contest between democracy and autocracy is at a “tipping point.”
Donald Trump, dynamited the climate pact and the agreement with Iran. AP
Biden also spoke about Iran and reiterated his commitment to resume negotiations with Tehran on its nuclear program, following the unilateral exit from the Trump administration’s nuclear deal, but said it is necessary to “address Iran’s destabilizing activities throughout the Middle East.”
On Thursday, the State Department had announced in a statement that the US would accept an invitation from the high representative of the European Union “to attend the meeting of the 5 + 1 group and Iran to discuss diplomatic channels on the nuclear program. from Iran.
In 2015, the 5 + 1 group (the US, Russia, China, France, the UK and Germany) and the European Union signed the nuclear agreement with Iran, from which Trump withdrew in 2018 arguing that it did not serve to contain the atomic development of that country nor its regional influence. In addition to withdrawing the country from that pact, Trump reimposed all economic sanctions on Tehran.
The German president during the virtual meeting Reuters
After Thursday’s announcement from the State Department, Iran on Friday insisted on its position of demanding that the US first lift all sanctions before making concessions. But Biden does not plan to lift sanctions on Iran for now, despite offering to open negotiations. “There are no plans to take further action before diplomatic negotiation,” White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters on the plane carrying President Joe Biden to Michigan, where she went to visit a factory of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccines.
Biden’s global speech was well received in Europe. German Chancellor Angela Merkel welcomed the arrival of the new president on the world stage. “Multilateralism is driven by change in the United States government; the Biden administration has already demonstrated this with its first decisions. “
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source https://pledgetimes.com/return-to-the-paris-climate-agreement-and-dialogue-with-iran-the-us-geopolitical-turn/
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