President Joe Biden will travel to Europe on Thursday for a series of meetings with world leaders focused on the global economy and climate change, as well as an official visit from Pope Francis, as the president seeks to strengthen some of his priority policies at home and Foreign. .
This is Biden’s second visit to the continent as president. Before traveling to Glasgow, Scotland, for the United Nations Climate Change Summit, he will stop in Rome for the summit of Group Twenty, a grouping of the world’s major economies.
In addition to his meeting with the pope, he is also expected to have a bilateral meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, who last month sent his country’s ambassadors from the United States to the United States after the Biden administration announced a subpoena deal with Australia. had called. Considered an unexpected humiliation for France.
As Biden prepares to talk about his economic and climate goals with world leaders, his national goals on those same issues are closer than ever, as Democratic lawmakers and the White House work on the final details of the community and general climate. We do. spending package.
President Biden is expected to travel to Europe on Thursday with at least one agreement outlined when he meets with world leaders, to demonstrate America’s commitment to climate and its domestic politics globally. values can be raised.
“You’ll see with your own eyes what a middle class foreign policy is,” National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters during the flight’s presentation on Tuesday.
Friday: Pope, Italian leaders and French President Macron meet
Following their arrival in Rome on Thursday, President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden will travel to the Vatican on Friday for a large ceremonial meeting with Pope Francis and one-on-one talks with the president and pope.
On Tuesday, Sullivan’s NSA said it would be the fourth time the president has met with the Pope and “exchanged messages”. According to the White House, they are expected to discuss issues such as “ending the COVID-19 pandemic, tackling the climate crisis and caring for the poor”.
FILE – In this September 24, 2015 file photo, Vice President Joe Biden shakes hands with Pope Francis on Capitol Hill in Washington before the Pope’s speech at a joint congressional meeting, making history the first pope to do so. Ohio Speaker of the House John Boehner is right. Biden is due to meet Pope Francis at the Vatican next Friday. (AP Photo/Pablo Martínez Monsivas, FILE)
Then, President Biden will meet with his Italian counterparts, including President Sergio Mattarella and Prime Minister Mario Draghi.
Finally, on Friday he will meet with French President Macron, as he promised in September after the diplomatic dispute that followed the United States overturning a nuclear submarine deal with Australia, grabbing a contract Was. Long standing submarine service between France and Australia.
Biden and Macron spoke on the phone for the first time since the announcement, and Secretary of State Anthony Blinken made a diplomatic visit to Paris earlier this month to help calm things down.
FILE – In this file photo from Friday, June 11, 2021, from left to right, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, US President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen together during the G7 summit in Corbys Bay Let’s go Cornwall, England. (Image via Leon Neal / AP Baraka, FILE)
Saturday and Sunday: G20 Summit
Later this week, President Biden will attend the annual summit of the Group of Twenty countries, which represent the world’s largest economies and account for 80% of global GDP.
National security adviser Sullivan said on Tuesday outside formal sessions on the international economy that President Biden would deal with “fringe” leaders as usual.
Sullivan has made it clear that he will focus on at least three main topics: supply chain and resilience issues, energy prices where gas costs remain high, and the state of Iran’s nuclear program.
Several rounds of talks between US and Iranian officials in Vienna this year were not enough to restore the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which former President Donald Trump withdrew in 2018.
“It is clear that we are closely monitoring the progress of Iran’s nuclear program,” Sullivan said on Tuesday. “We had coverage on this program. Now we don’t have it because we don’t have this deal. So our first and top priority is to get back on the table.”
earlier this week, US envoy to Iran said: Negotiations were at a “critical juncture” to determine whether the nuclear deal could be resumed.
Broadly speaking, the United States is expected to emerge from the summit with a tangible outcome – the final acceptance of the G-20 countries. raise the global minimum tax At 15% on large corporations, after years of discussion on the issue when President Biden took office.
Sullivan acknowledged that Chinese and Russian leaders would not attend the G20 meeting, which would make productive talks with these countries “more difficult”, although he added that the United States still planned to engage with representatives from both countries. has created.
Monday and Tuesday: United Nations Climate Change Conference
President Biden’s weekly endgame in Europe will focus on the climate, a key part of his national “Build Back Better” agenda as the final parties in Washington take place.
Biden is expected to deliver a keynote address at the conference, where he will likely focus on the United States’ commitments to tackling climate change, as well as characterizing those efforts as job creation. The President has decided so far The goal of halving carbon emissions By 2030 to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 with a focus on economic benefits.
“When I think of climate, I think of jobs. Well-paying jobs and union jobs,” Biden said earlier this month in a trip to Hartford, Connecticut to promote his program But said.
Speaking at the United Nations General Assembly in September, President Biden also doubled the United States’ financial commitment to international climate finance to $11.4 billion a year.
But it is not clear what concrete achievements the president will have with him in Europe this week, as only the Democrats’ final climate framework for the bill remains undetermined.
For example, the Clean Energy Demonstration Program—which prompts utility companies to switch to clean energy—is unlikely to be included, as Senator Joe Manchin, DW.VA, opposes it. Democrats are trying to replace it with something else.
Protesters gather to demand that the Biden administration do more to fight climate change and ban fossil fuels outside the White House on Tuesday, October 12, 2021 in Washington (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
Sullivan said Tuesday that the president “intends to meet” his climate commitments so far, regardless of the status of the spending bill.
“Whether there is an agreement or talks continue this week, there will be a lot of energy and enthusiasm for these efforts,” he said.
Biden’s agenda hangs in balance
President Biden said as recently as Monday that he expects to reach an agreement on leaving the country this week, and Democrats aim to end talks by October 31, before Biden surrenders to Glasgow.
But White House officials walked away from that Tuesday’s deadline, suggesting instead that progress in recent weeks would be sufficient evidence of climate action and other political goals.
“I think what allies are looking for is the effort that President Biden has now made to design and negotiate an ambitious and practical set of investments,” Sullivan said on Tuesday.
“You have a sophisticated group of world leaders who understand their country’s politics and they understand American democracy,” he said. “I don’t think world leaders are going to see this as a bilateral issue. Done? Was it not? They’ll say: Is President Biden going to deliver what he said? He will and we believe that somehow He will be on the right track to do it.”
Top Democrats were optimistic on Tuesday, saying better reconstruction plans were being implemented.
“I think the final deal is within reach,” Senator Chuck Schumer, the New York majority leader, said after a political lunch for Democratic senators.
New York City Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer speaks to reporters after a Democratic strategy meeting on Capitol Hill Tuesday, October 26, 2021 in Washington (AP Photo/Andrew Harnick)
The president also welcomed several House Democrats to the White House on Tuesday afternoon. It is one of the few possible fixtures in his schedule this week, as his team deliberately cut their schedule until he departs on Thursday.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the goal is to be as close to a deal as possible by then.
“That’s why we’re working so hard,” she told reporters in the conference room.
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