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Joe Biden in Germany/ The last transatlantic president?

2024-10-18 08:11:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

The President of the USA, Joe Biden, is only a few months in office, the time has come for a farewell tour. After having to postpone a planned visit due to Hurricane Milton, Biden visits Germany on Friday.

As the first US president since George HW Bush, Biden will be honored by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier with the Grand Cross of the Federal Order of Merit. "With this medal, the German president appreciates the merits of President Biden for the German-American friendship and the transatlantic alliance, which Biden has significantly influenced and strengthened in more than five decades," the presidency in Berlin announced before the planned visit to beginning of October.

Biden has cared about the relations between the USA, Europe and the USA and Germany in particular. With the end of his presidency, an era comes to an end.

"I think he can be described as the last transatlantic president," Michelle Egan, a professor at the American University in Washington and an expert on relations between the US and Europe, told DW. "This has to do with his many years of work in NATO, the Munich Security Conference and the Committee on Foreign Policy in the US Senate, which has made it possible for him to get to know many European heads of state, before he became president.

Why Biden is a great transatlantic personality

Biden was born in 1942. He grew up in a country that helped Germany rebuild after World War II. After the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961 he was able to see how West Germany became an important partner of the USA during the Cold War.

"Biden has been in politics since 1972, and he gained experience in foreign policy through experiences from the Cold War," Peter Sparding, vice president of the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress, told DW. "Germany was practically at the epicenter of this conflict."

As vice president during Barack Obama's presidency, Biden's experience in foreign policy was of great importance.

"Obama had very limited experience with foreign policy" when he ran for president, Egan says. "That's why Biden got the job of vice president. Biden had the connections and the right knowledge."

Obama has been very popular in Europe, because he rebuilt transatlantic relations after the presidency of George W. Bush, Egan further underlines - it was Biden who had an emotional connection with Europe, not Obama.

USA and Germany: Much in common

Even today, during the presidency of Biden, Germany continues to be an important partner of the USA. Both countries are among Ukraine's biggest supporters in the war against Russia. Just like the USA and Germany, they are among the countries that, in the current conflict in the Middle East, emphasize more forcefully Israel's right to self-defense.

Egan draws attention to the fact that both countries, in addition to similar positions on the international stage, also share similar internal challenges. "Both the US and Germany are currently experiencing a political divide," says transatlantic affairs expert Michelle Egan.

In the USA, the Democrats and Republicans represent two clearly ideologically separated camps, which often face each other fiercely and even fight each other. In Germany, Egan says, the rise of right-wing populists and the partly far-right AfD (Alternative for Germany) party is a sign of the political fragmentation of the population.

"A second parallel, in my view, is the subject of borders and border controls," notes Egan. "Despite freedom of movement within the Schengen area and the EU, Germany has reopened the topic of border controls."

After a migrant in Solingen stabbed three people to death in August 2024, Germany tightened its migration policy. This also includes the application of controls at all German border points - even at the borders with other EU countries. This step was controversial in Germany.

Even in the USA, during the electoral campaign, the Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris sometimes gets stuck when it comes to the politics of migration and security on the US border with Mexico. Biden had declared this topic at the beginning of his presidency as Harris' field of duties, now the opponent Donald Trump criticizes, that illegal immigrants are responsible for a large part of the problems in the USA.

The US is reaching out to other partners

Biden will also be considered as the last great transatlantic personality, because Germany in US foreign policy will play a less important role than in the past. Also, it will not be able to rely as strongly as it has until now on the USA as a protector of European security, emphasizes Peter Sparding.

"German-American relations in the future will be different, regardless of who will lead the presidency in the future," says Sparding. "The US is moving towards the Indo-Pacific space and reacts to China as a competitor that must be taken seriously. From the US side, it is expected that countries like Germany take more responsibility in Europe and around Europe."/ DW