German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and US President Joe Biden at the Bellevue Palace in Berlin, Germany, 18 October 2024. Photo: Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters
US President Joe Biden is seeking to cement cooperation with key European partners on the war in Ukraine and the conflict in the Middle East during his brief visit to Berlin on Friday. In his post on X, Biden wrote: “We have landed in Berlin. Ready to meet old friends and strengthen our close alliance as we stand together for freedom and against tyranny around the world,” Reuters reported.
Biden, who has sought to improve ties with Europe after Donald Trump’s presidency (2017-2021), will be greeted with military honours before receiving Germany’s highest honour from President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. The recognition recognises the 81-year-old president’s “contribution to German-American friendship and transatlantic ties” in all the positions he has held over the past five decades, according to the German presidential office.
The visit comes just weeks before the US presidential election, in which Republican candidate Trump is competing for re-election in a close race with Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate. Biden, who dropped out of the race in July in favour of Harris, is scheduled to hold closed-door talks with Chancellor Olaf Scholz in the late morning to discuss security, trade and other economic issues.
Later, they will be joined by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron for talks that will largely focus on how to end the fighting in Ukraine as Russian troops advance in the east and a harsh winter with power outages looms. “The key issue is the nature of the security guarantees, and this is what we will talk about tomorrow,” Macron said at the briefing.
The approaching US presidential election increases the sense of urgency regarding Ukraine, as Trump has made it clear that he will be much less willing to continue supporting Kyiv. Biden’s visit to Berlin is likely to be his last visit to Europe as president, confirming the close working relationship between him and Scholz.
Biden built trust with Germany early in his term and was briefly distracted by the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project, which aimed to double Russian gas supplies directly to Germany. This became the basis for close cooperation between Washington and Berlin after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which allowed Germany’s defence spending to quickly rise to the NATO target of 2% of GDP, and Russian gas imports were sharply reduced.
Berlin also played a key role in the important prisoner exchange in August between Russia and the West, which resulted in the release of American journalist Eugene Gershkovich and former US Marine Paul Whelan. “This is a thank-you tour, but also a message that no matter what happens, please continue to support Ukraine,” added David David-Wilp of the German Marshall Fund of the United States.
