Unlike what unfolded during the Trump era, President Joe Biden is seeking to strengthen partnerships with world leaders like French President Emmanuel Macron, who was one of many high-profile global figures who faced petulant complaints from Trump. At one point, Trump even derided France for their struggles during World War II, as if world history was merely fuel for the ex-president’s whiny meltdowns. Trump’s withdrawal of the U.S. from the Paris climate agreement — called as such because it was reached in Paris — also led to friction with world leaders, including the French president. Now, Macron says that Biden has “definitely” convinced allies of the United States that “America is back,” which is an idea that Biden himself has employed.
Macron offered that assessment after a reporter asked if Biden had successfully convinced allies that the U.S. is “back,” with Biden passing off the question to Macron. Addressing Biden directly at another point on Saturday, Macron commented as follows:
‘For all these issues, what we need is cooperation, and I think it’s great to have the U.S. president part of the club and willing to cooperate. And I think that what you demonstrate is that leadership is partnership.’
As Biden put it in reply:
‘The United States, I’ve said before, we’re back, the U.S. is back. We feel very, very strongly about the cohesion of NATO and I, for one, think that the European Union is an incredibly strong and vibrant entity that has a lot to do with the ability of western Europe to not only handle its economic issues but provide the backbone and support for NATO.’
Check out interactions this weekend between Biden and Macron below:
Infamously, NATO — the North Atlantic Treaty Organization — was yet another target of Trump’s petulant ire. Trump repeatedly insisted that fellow members of the alliance were not spending appropriately high enough amounts towards the entity’s goals, and the former president entertained the idea of withdrawing the United States from the organization altogether. Doing so would have provided opportunities for Russia and other adversarial interests to assert themselves in the absence of the U.S.
Biden’s time overseas this week was scheduled to include meetings with, besides Macron, world leaders like British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Russian President Vladimir Putin. A summit of the G7 world leaders was also slated to unfold while Biden was out of the country.
