“Using force as a last resort” – Corriere.it

The intervention of the American president also takes into consideration the issues of the pandemic (“We need a collective act of political will”) and human rights in Belarus, Syria and Cuba

Joe Biden offers a kind of “respite in competition”, without ever naming it, a Xi Jinping. It ensures that the United States does not want to embark on a complicated and dangerous one cold War, implied with China: “We have returned to the table of the international community to turn the page”.

Today, Tuesday 21 September, the American president gave his first speech at theUN Assembly. He spoke for 35 minutes, exceeding the quarter of an hour allotted to each speaker. This time he saved on the rhetoric he has accustomed us to, on moral values, on “America, the beacon of the world’s democracy”.

Instead, he made an effort to keep together “partners”, “allies” and even “adversaries”, indicating the “two planetary emergencies” that all countries must face: the pandemic and climate change, of course. Biden also hinted at a couple of concrete proposals, which he will develop tomorrow, Wednesday 22 September, in the summit on the pandemic at the level of heads of state and government: “We have already allocated 15 billion dollars to contribute to the global response to the Covid-19. More needs to be done and tomorrow I will tell you what our new commitments will be ».

Other resources are also coming on the front of the climate change: «I will work with Congress to double aid to facilitate the energy transition of developing countries. Last April I had already pledged to double those funds, now I tell you that we will double … the doubling ».

The exact figures to think about should arrive in the next few days: but at the eye we are talking about about 5-6 billion dollars a year which could become more than 15, mobilizing capital and private investments. Maybe it’s not much, but it’s a sign nonetheless, it’s Biden’s implicit conclusion.

The measures, the pragmatism flaunted by the American leader descend from one political scheme at this point very clear. “For the first time in the past twenty years, the United States is no longer at war. AND the time of wars is over without end, the time has come to focus on diplomacy. Let me be clear: we will compete vigorously in the markets, we will defend our vital interests and our fundamental values. But we will use military force only as a last resort ». The first message, therefore, is for China, the new great adversary, never explicitly mentioned: “We are not looking for, I repeat, we are not looking for a new Cold War”.

And here it opens up like a logical and political crack in American reasoning. On the one hand, Biden insists: «We are ready to cooperate with everyone to tackle the problems that affect all of humanity, even with those countries with which we strongly disagree ».

On the other hand, however, the White House number one draws precise lines on the geo-political map. “We must focus our eyes on the Indo-Pacific region, on Asia, to amplify the spread of our values, to develop trade, to guarantee freedom of navigation.”

All things that translated mean: a security cordon to contain China’s economic and military expansionism. After all, the speech at the UN seems almost a formal interlude in the intense work to build what Beijing has defined “the NATO of the Pacific”, a hostile operation led by the Americans with the collaboration of Japan, Australia, India and now also the United United. However, it is objectively complicated to ask Beijing to collaborate and, at the same time, to work on a cage to harness its thrust.

But it is so. In the afternoon Biden saw the Australian Prime Minister, Scott Morrison (already in great harmony with Donald Trump); in the evening he meets the British Boris Johnson at the White House. Finally, Friday 24 face to face with the Indian leader Narendra Modi and with the Japanese leader Yoshihide Suga, on the sidelines of the Quad Summit, “The Quadrilateral Security Agreement”, the format that since 2007 brings together precisely the United States, Japan, India and Australia. And Europe? Biden conceded only a quick nod to the “fundamental alliance with the Europeans”, recalling the “sacred duty of Article 5 of NATO”, that is, the obligation of all to intervene in defense of a partner under attack.

Biden will be hearing the president by phone these days Emanuel Macron to try to smooth out the political-diplomatic clash triggered by the supply of propelled submarines nuclear to Australia, blown from the United States to France. That’s all: Biden asks the Europeans to share the weight of the global fight against coronavirus and climate change, but it seems to exclude them from the big game in the Indo-Pacific.

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