“Trans-Atlantic alliance is back”, UK reiterates Biden’s recent declaration of tackling region’s security challenges

 At the conference, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson reiterated US President Joe Biden’s recent declaration regarding the formation of a new “trans-Atlantic Quad” to unitedly tackle the security challenges in the region. Of late, while discussing America’s newly adopted multilateral engagement approach Biden said “the trans-Atlantic alliance is back”. His statement hinted at the beginning of a new chapter in the country’s international relations. He emphasized that under the new alliance the US would unite forces with its European allies to cater to the evolving geopolitics, along with hinting at a shift of focus towards Asia.

While chairing the G7 virtual conference from 10 Downing Street, Johnson said, “Britain is working alongside France, Germany and the United States in a trans-Atlantic Quad to address the most pressing security issues, including Iran.” Johnson emphasized that the Quad alliance was the Atlantic version of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue between the US, Japan, India, and Australia, formed to keep in check China’s rising military expansion in the Asia Pacific region.

Johnson added, “A new world is rising up around us, patterns of trade and commerce are changing, the global center of gravity is moving eastwards, the technological revolution proceeds with blistering speed. But none of us should fear or resent these changes.”

The British premier emphasized that European nations realized the need to join hands with US “to rediscover that far-sighted leadership and the spirit of adventure and trans-Atlantic unity, that made our two continents great in the first place.”

During his Friday’s speech at the Munich event, Biden said that the world was at “an inflection point” where the need of the hour was to bring together like-minded democracies to combat the pressing forces of autocracy in order to tackle the current challenges including COVID-19, the economic crisis and climate change. It was Biden’s way to deal with the rising influence of Russia and China in the region. 

With regard to the newly formulated Atlantic and Pacific alliance, Biden said that “how the United States, Europe, and Asia work together to secure the peace and defend our shared values and advance our prosperity across the Pacific will be among the most consequential efforts we undertake.”

The efforts of the US leader against China were appreciated by his German and French counterparts, Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron. Merkel said, “in recent years, China has gained more power on the international stage, and we as trans-Atlantic partners and democratic countries, we need to react to that.”  On the other hand, Macron emphasized that over the last few years the US has shifted its center of focus from Europe towards Asia. “Now the US has become a Pacific power,” he said, so “we must take more of the burden of our own protection”.