One of the reasons Obama picked Biden as his VP is because of Joe’s long history of understanding foreign relations and working with foreign leaders. Obama was blown away by the nuanced and intelligent answers Joe gave during the debates in 2008. No surprise there: Joe chaired the very powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee and spent years traveling the world and meeting with leaders. When he was VP, Obama sent Biden on many missions around the world to deal with foreign leaders and help make important policy decisions.
Over the years Biden got a well-deserved reputation as someone who will call out bad actors and who values the alliances and friendships that keep America (and the world safe).
In fact, our allies abroad were among the many to encourage Biden to run for the presidency.
When Joe Biden attended the annual Munich Security Conference last month, the wonky foreign policy confab promised an escape from the nonstop speculation back home about the former vice president’s political plans.
Instead, Biden’s 2020 intentions were the talk of the conference.
When Armenian President Armen Sarkissian ran into him in a hallway, a TV camera captured him asking Biden: “Are you going to run?” (Biden whispered an inaudible answer.)
And in several conversations with European leaders in Munich, Biden heard a repeated refrain, according to a conference attendee familiar with the conversations: The world needs you.
Nicholas Burns, a former under secretary of State in the Bush administration who introduced Biden before his speech in Munich and interviewed him on stage, noted that “Biden is deeply respected by European leaders and respected not just for the many and many decades of service but for the quality of it.”
“He is seen as a firm trans-Atlanticist. He’s seen as an American leader who believes in American power,” said Burns, summarizing his conversations with European leaders he declined to name.
Our allies around the world are hungry for a Biden presidency and the return of a world in which the United States stands with other democracies against the threat of authoritarianism. They want the US to reclaim its leadership.
As president, Joe Biden will be respected (and trusted) by leaders all over the world.
Joe Biden will be a great president.