The global village greets Biden with scepticism 

In geopolitics, gestures are worth as much as words: both Iran and North Korea welcome the new US president, Joe Biden, with announcements that both are pursuing their nuclear interests. 

The newly inaugurated president is not going to have it all his own way because he inherits a foreign policy that has become a tangled web of problems, with tense relations with several countries and fundamentally opposed to multilateralism. 

From relations with transatlantic partners to tension in the Middle East and misgivings with Asia; not to mention the hotbeds of war in Yemen, to the unfinished war in Syria, South Sudan and the ethnic conflicts in Mali, Niger and the Central African Republic. 

Biden has sought to strengthen the external face of the US by securing a pluralistic cabinet with people of proven experience and an average age of around 59. 

Who are they? The so-called "key team" in foreign policy and national security is made up of: Antony Blinken, Secretary of State; Alejandro Mayorkas, Secretary of Homeland Security; Avril Haines, Director of National Intelligence; Linda Thomas-Greenfield, US Ambassador to the United Nations; Jake Sullivan, National Security Advisor; and John Kerry, Special Presidential Envoy for Climate Change. 

In recent days, the name of Jeffrey Prescott, a research fellow at the Pen Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Partnerships, has been floated as a likely 'US Asia czar' whose mission would be to form a coalition in the Asia-Pacific to counterbalance Chinese power. 

The new occupant of the White House intends to salvage much of Obama's policies, although China has become stronger, to the point of being the only economy to achieve 2.3% growth in the midst of an atrocious pandemic with SARS-CoV-2 not only affecting human lives but also bankrupting thousands of businesses and companies.  

"We have to reverse everything he (Trump) has done. We have no time to waste when it comes to our national security and our foreign policy. I need a team ready on day one in office, to help me reclaim America's place of leadership, unite the world to confront the most important challenges we face, and advance our security, prosperity and values," President Biden said.  

He has also said that among his essentials, almost in his first days in office, he will return the US to the Paris Agreement, arguing that this rude and unilateral abandonment of the climate summit on Trump's orders should never have happened. 

How does the global village receive Biden and his vice-president Kamala Harris? It does so with scepticism and expectation, with each region expressing different sentiments depending on the complexity of its relationship with the US. For now, North Korea announces that it will continue to test long-range missiles and pursue its nuclear race, while Iran is equally pressing, warning that it has resumed uranium enrichment.  

The EU, meanwhile, welcomes the change of leadership, with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen herself expressing her firm conviction to start working as quickly as possible with President Biden and Vice-President Harris.  

"The United States is back and Europe stands ready to reconnect with our old trusted partner, to bring new and fresh breath to our alliance. I am excited to work with @JoeBiden," the European president tweeted on her personal account. 

The big question is how Biden will manage to reverse everything that his predecessor did in four years, and the puzzle is not easy to solve because there is a lot to put back together: for example, the tariffs imposed on the EU, the tariff trade war with China, the tightening of economic sanctions and the freezing of goods to Iran, North Korea, Venezuela and Cuba, which Trump, in the death throes of his administration, ordered to be placed among the states that help terrorists.  

In the opinion of Antonio López Vega, director of the Instituto Universitario de Investigación Ortega y Gasset, what is undoubtedly expected is the return of the US to multilateralism and a return to subscribing to agreements on environmental sustainability and the resolution of international conflicts from an active perspective. 

"I believe that it is essential to recover the dialogue of the Western bloc in order to help navigate the stormy waters of the coming international situation with different actors such as China and Russia, and that there the united voice of the EU and the US is fundamental to assert the traditional values of democracy, sustainability and social justice that have illuminated the thinking in our space over the last hundred years", the Spanish executive stated in an exclusive interview.  

With the Trump era came arbitrary decisions: the recognition of Jerusalem alone as the capital of Israel, the transfer of the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and the announcement to cut all US funding to Palestinian aid agencies, including the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). 

It seems that the shadow of the Republican administration will last for some time yet - there is a perception in Europe that it has done a lot of damage and tried to do even more damage when it lost the election.  

Perhaps all the reinstatements will not happen as quickly as we would like in terms of the return of the US to the Paris Treaty, to the World Health Organisation, to UNESCO, or reversing serious and important decisions such as abandoning the Nuclear Treaty with Iran, breaking the Open Skies Treaty, and abandoning the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty with Russia. 

There is also a need to regain global respect and momentum. There are a wide range of challenges on the horizon for Biden and Harris, some of them as important to López Vega as restoring the US's image in the international arena:  "We have to rebuild the image of the US abroad, throughout these four years with the racial issues and Trump's blunders on the international stage... the perception has grown in the world that the solidity and tradition of commitment to the American way of life in the US has been diluted, even democratic values themselves have been questioned with the assault on the Capitol in recent days; I believe that one of the challenges is to recover the image of the US on the international stage". 

Although there are great expectations, it is also true that Biden will defend his country's commercial, economic, geopolitical and geo-economic interests, and in this sense he has to deal with Russia and fundamentally with China. 

There will be a slight improvement in relations with China, says Xulio Ríos, who anticipates a recovery of a certain institutional tone, but "it will not be enough" to avoid tensions. 

Form is substance and substance is form: in one way or another, at least there will be dialogue, but "a turnaround looks difficult", as the president of the China Policy Observatory remarks, after recalling that many changes introduced by Trump in the bilateral relationship enjoy "bipartisan consensus". 

"Therefore, I don't think that trade and technological tensions will change - right off the bat - between them. On the other hand, even if the forms change, the underlying issue, i.e. the hegemonic struggle, will remain, which means that strategic tensions will also persist," he said. 

The issues that generate friction between US and Chinese policy run the gamut: from human rights, the situation in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Tibet, to the waters in the South China Sea and economic and technological competition, which Trump has tried to curb with vetoes, tariffs, restrictions and other punishments.  

The new US president has repeatedly stated that his nation will not let down its guard in the Asia-Pacific region, but rather will strengthen its presence. 

"The Biden administration being more "professional" can help forge that international coalition; in fact, the Quad, which is a forum that brings together Australia, the US, India and Japan, points in that direction," Ríos said. 

On the other hand, he adds, one should not overlook the deterioration suffered in US soft power in the Trump years, which represents "a mortgage" that will lead many countries to wait and see.  

"Ideals and values may not be enough to forge such a coalition if countries' "interests" diverge, especially at a time when the pandemic is draining many economies around the world," the international adviser said. 

However, there is another region of the world that is hopeful that its immediate future in its transatlantic relations will improve or at least regain the momentum it had prior to Trump's arrival in power: the EU is backing Biden's presidency.  

How is the EU's relationship with the EU expected to fare in this new phase?  According to Miguel Álvarez de Eulate, with the multilateralist vision of President Biden, whose motto is "America is back", the European Union has the potential to resume an important role in the strategy of reconnecting the US.  

For the Director of the Foundation for Strategic and International Studies (FESEI), the personalities proposed to form part of his cabinet also show this multilateral profile and future harmony with the EU, and a clear example, Álvarez de Eulate points out, is the appointment of Antony Blinken as Secretary of State, an active "Atlanticist" vision.  

"There are many areas of common understanding that will help to bring the EU and the US closer together. 

There are many areas of common understanding that will help to bring the EU and the United States closer together, such as, for example, policies to combat climate change and the vision of democracy as an active component in foreign policy", he stressed in an interview. 

Will the tariff war between the North American nation and the common European bloc also be won? The position on trade policy, the FESEI leader believes, will remain cautious. 

Will there be a way to see a tariff-free policy between the EU and the US that could lead to a free trade agreement or at least eliminate the tariffs imposed by Trump? 

Tariffs as a diplomatic weapon have been very characteristic of President Trump's style of international politics, a business-like style focused on aggressive negotiation and with a clear tendency towards bilateral relations rather than multilateral relations, basically because of the US advantage in negotiating with individual countries that have strengthened and protected their economies. 

Could there be a return to the negotiation and conclusion of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) that would include the elimination of 97% of tariffs between the EU and the US? 

-In the short term, there is no 100% certainty of drastic tariff reductions, given that President Biden has inherited domestic crises that could lead to protectionist policy scenarios to protect the EU and the US. 

protectionist policy scenarios to protect the US socio-economic fabric.