America is back, says Biden
China’s economic abuses and coercion can no longer be tolerated, US President Joe Biden has said, vowing to fight back and urging his European allies to prove that democracy is not a ‘‘relic of history’’.
In his most aggressive foreign policy speech since taking office, Biden has sought to rebuild the trans-Atlantic axis as a counterweight to the growing power of Beijing, Moscow and other autocracies.
‘‘We are in the midst of a fundamental debate about the future direction of our world,’’ he told the Munich Security Conference yesterday. ‘‘And I believe with every ounce of my being that democracy must prevail.’’
The US also signalled its willingness to repair the diplomatic damage of the Trump era by offering to revive the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, rejoining the Paris climate agreement, and pledging US$4 billion (NZ$5.47b) towards Covid-19 vaccines for developing countries.
Biden cast Beijing as the principal threat to the American-led global order, telling the West to ‘‘prepare for a long strategic competition with China’’ and ‘‘own the race for the future’’.
He accused Russia of ‘‘threatening and bullying’’ states, and said his Administration would make the territorial integrity of Ukraine one of its highest priorities.
However, he disowned the idea of a second Cold War, arguing that the geopolitical divide was ‘‘not simply a matter of East versus West’’.
Biden’s appearance at the world’s most influential global politics summit, the first by a sitting US president, was choreographed to display unity with his allies in the European Union. Speaking by video link from the White House, he appeared on screen alongside French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor
Angela Merkel.
His speech sought to undo the mistrust and hostility that had arisen between the US and the European powers under his predecessor. Biden declared that ‘‘America is back’’ and that the trans-Atlantic alliance was ‘‘the cornerstone of all we hope to accomplish in the 21st century’’.
Biden said the pandemic had strengthened the allure of autocracy in Western societies, and democracy’s existence was challenged.
‘‘We must demonstrate that democracies can still deliver for our people. Democracy doesn’t happen by accident. We have to defend it, strengthen it, renew it.’’
Merkel appealed for a balance between rivalry and collaboration. ‘‘We need China to settle global problems such as climate change, biodiversity and others,’’ she said.
Macron said the US had become a ‘‘Pacific power’’, shifting its military weight and geopolitical centre of gravity away from the European Union and towards China.
‘‘In previous decades, the US was much more focused on Europe,’’ he said. ‘‘It’s time for us to take on much more of the burden of our protection.’’
Final preparations are being made this weekend for Australia’s first Covid-19 vaccinations, starting tomorrow, in what will be the largest exercise of its kind in the country’s history.
Border and quarantine staff, vaccination teams, aged care residents and workers, and emergency and intensive care workers will be among the first to receive the free Pfizer vaccine from tomorrow.
Two doses of the Pfizer vaccine are required at least three weeks apart, and it must be stored and transported at minus 70 degrees Celsius.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said that as vaccination numbers increased across Australia, the ‘‘tool’’ of lockdowns could also be ‘‘put back in the box’’.
He said federal and state health officers were monitoring whether to make vaccinations compulsory for some workers.
A flying squad of 500 nurse immunisers will be dispatched across the country to vaccinate aged care and disability residents.
An Australian Bureau of Statistics survey found that men (76 per cent) were more likely than women (71 per cent) to agree or strongly agree with getting the jab. There was also stronger support for it among people aged over 65 than among younger Australians.
Tasmania reopened to Victoria yesterday, allowing hundreds of arrivals from the mainland state out of quarantine. However, Tasmania still considers about 30 sites in
Victoria high-risk, and people who have been to those sites are not allowed to visit the island state unless they are an essential traveller.
Tasmania closed its border to Victoria a week ago in response to a coronavirus cluster at Melbourne Airport’s Holiday Inn.
Victoria recorded no new local Covid-19 cases yesterday, with Health Minister Martin Foley saying the numbers gave ‘‘increasing confidence’’ to authorities. Just 25 active cases remain in the state, with one person in hospital.
Foley said that while the Holiday Inn cluster was ‘‘far from being over’’, the numbers indicated that it was ‘‘increasingly under control’’.
There are still some restrictions in place for Victoria, including compulsory mask wearing indoors, and limits of five visitors per household.
■ Leaders of the Group of Seven economic powers have promised to immunise the world’s neediest people against the coronavirus by giving money, and precious vaccine doses, to a United Nations-backed vaccine distribution effort. But – under
pressure over their own countries’ vaccination campaigns – they are unwilling to say exactly how much vaccine they are willing to share with the developing world, or when.
After the G7 leaders held a virtual meeting yesterday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said fair distribution of vaccines was ‘‘an elementary question of fairness.’’ But she added: ‘‘No vaccination appointment in Germany is going to be endangered.’’
The leaders said they would accelerate global vaccine development and deployment’’, and support ‘‘affordable and equitable access to vaccines’’ and treatments for Covid-19.
‘‘This is a global pandemic, and it’s no use one country being far ahead of another,’’ British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said as he opened the virtual summit with the leaders of the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Japan. The United Kingdom holds the G7 presidency this year.
Wealthy nations have snapped up hundreds of millions of doses of Covid-19 vaccines, while some countries in the developing world have little or none.
Johnson, whose country has reported almost 120,000 virusrelated deaths, promised to give ‘‘the majority of any future surplus vaccines’’ to the UNbacked Covax effort to vaccinate the world’s most vulnerable people. However, Foreign Office Minister James Cleverly said it was ‘‘difficult to say with any kind of certainty’’ when or how much Britain could donate.
French President Emmanuel Macron gave a firmer target, saying Europe and the US should allocate up to 5 per cent of their current vaccine supplies to the poorest countries ‘‘very fast’’. He noted that Russia and China had been quick to offer doses of their own products to some African nations.
An African Union-created vaccines task force said yesterday that it would be getting 300 million doses of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine in May.
The AU previously secured 270 million doses from AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson for the continent of 1.3 billion people.