Biden's aggressive stability
Joe Biden has begun his term as US president by clarifying his position vis-à-vis the other two great superpowers. He considers Russian President Vladimir Putin a murderer and will pay a high price for interfering in the 2020 US elections. At the meeting of the foreign and security ministers of the two countries in Alaska, China was accused of carrying out cyber-attacks and violating the rights of the Muslim Uighurs, the people of Tibet, Hong Kong and Taiwan, who are allies of the United States and are economically coerced by them.
Putin's reaction was to mock Biden himself and recall his ambassador to Washington for consultations, something that had not happened during the Cuban missile crisis in 1962 or at other serious moments in the Cold War. On the table is the possible rupture of relations between the two countries. Undoubtedly, Biden has every reason to expose Putin's actions, through a Ukrainian businessman who, in the midst of the election campaign, accused the son of the current US president of using his father's influence to do business. The White House's accusations even refer to secret agreements between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. The consequences of this confrontation will have a first economic and commercial consequence, and we will see how far Joe Biden is willing to go in his aim to face a new relationship with Putin's Russia, which in recent years has achieved a relevant role in the Middle East with its control of Syria and a major military rearmament; but, above all, and here is the real intention, to neutralise Trump's attempts to remain active on the political stage and become a constant scourge with the aim of regaining the presidency in the 2024 elections.
In the case of China, the response was immediate from Chinese Communist Party Politburo member Wang Yi accusing the Americans of being the champions of cyber-attacks; and he rejected their defence of democracy and freedom by claiming that the race riots in the US show that many people do not trust the democracy that the US promotes around the world.
Insults and threats that call into question the virtual summit that Joe Biden and Xi Jinping plan to hold on 22 April on the occasion of Earth Day. The new US administration has turned the cards upside down and let us hope that it has calculated the move well, because in these times of pandemic and serious economic and employment crisis, what the world needs is stability and collaboration. But with clear rules of the game for all, so that stability has a solid foundation.