Joe Biden in Berlin with Olaf Scholz – This shadow lies over the visit

//

Lerato Khumalo

The US President’s visit to Germany was intended to be a signal of departure for Ukraine – and to give Chancellor Scholz a little international shine. The catch-up trip now shows: It’s complicated, and it doesn’t get any better.

The really big show was actually planned. For the first time since reunification, a US president, Joe Biden, was to be received in Germany with the “highest protocol honors” – a state visit lasting several days including a banquet with the Federal President in Bellevue Palace.

But nothing will come of it now. The 81-year-old’s stay in Germany is expected to last a total of just 20 hours. After Biden canceled his trip to Berlin, which was initially announced for last week, because of Hurricane Milton, everything has to be made a little smaller at the end of this week: a short work trip instead of a state visit with pomp and glory. And this despite the fact that the challenges facing Ukraine, the Middle East and NATO as a whole could hardly be greater.

In order for at least the political discussions to take place in the limited time, the ceremonies have to suffer. According to information from government circles in Berlin and the White House, there is now a scaled-down, but no less stressful program for Biden: After a “quiet arrival” by the US President at Berlin’s BER airport on Thursday evening, Joe Biden will first go to the hotel. On Friday morning, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier received him with military honors.

Loading…

Embed

The awarding of the highest German order – the special level of the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic – will take place as originally planned. Afterwards, there will only be a short reception and no state banquet in honor of Biden. Because a little later he has to go to lunch with Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD).

And something else has been omitted: Unlike originally planned, Biden will not cross the Brandenburg Gate with Berlin’s Governing Mayor Kai Wegner (CDU). Such a meeting, a kind of flying visit to a single federal state, is otherwise part of the standard program of a state visit. The historically charged symbolism of another US president at the Brandenburg Gate falls flat. Instead, a joint press statement is planned after the first conversation with the Chancellor.

This is followed by perhaps the most politically important date for Biden: a four-way meeting with the heads of state of France and Great Britain. Emmanuel Macron and Keir Stamer are coming to Berlin for this. A senior administration official on Biden’s National Security Council in Washington called this meeting a “Quad Meeting,” an acronym that otherwise stands for “Quadrilateral Security Dialogue” in the United States. This is a format developed for the Pacific to respond to China’s activities and includes Australia, India, Japan and the United States.

The European version of a “Quad Meeting” is apparently intended to create a kind of Atlantic mirror image of the Pacific format, not against China, but against the acute military threats in Europe from Russia. It is also a first, clear indication that the USA could end up as the most important supporter of Ukraine under a possible next President Donald Trump. Biden wants to use the meeting to enhance the value of the three other partners and possibly pass the baton to them as a prophylactic measure.

Everyone in Berlin knows that the Chancellor and the Federal Republic alone could neither politically, financially nor militarily fill the gap that the USA would potentially leave behind. Macron, Starmer and Scholz would then have to do this together – and that would only succeed if the other alliance states could be won over to significantly more commitment. The future of Ukraine depends on the strength and unity of the three European middle powers, two of which have their own nuclear weapons.

According to the American government official from the White House, this meeting will not only be about current and future military aid, but in particular about financing the necessary reconstruction of Ukraine after a possible end to the war. And the four-party format of Biden, Scholz, Starmer and Macron should also apparently discuss a common stance on the situation in the Middle East. According to the White House, it is about the armed conflicts between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah in Lebanon, but above all about the impending dangers from Iran.