After Biden, Blinken back to Europe to shore up Western unity
Days after Joe Biden's first presidential trip abroad, Secretary of State Antony Blinken is heading back to Europe Tuesday to keep up the work of building Western unity against a rising China.
Blinken will travel to Berlin, Paris and Rome, meeting the European Union's two key powerbrokers, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron, as well as Vatican leaders and taking part in talks on bringing peace to war-scarred Libya and defeating the Islamic State extremist group.
The top US diplomat will close his trip with a June 29 meeting in the Italian city of Matera of the Group of 20 major economies, potentially bringing him face to face with his counterpart from China -- whose growing assertiveness abroad and at home has been identified by the Biden administration as the top US challenge.
Biden on his own trip had proposed a vast infrastructure plan by the Group of Seven industrial democracies to rival China's signature Belt and Road Initiative and led a NATO summit to take up China more explicitly than ever before.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/after-biden-blinken-back-to-europe-to-shore-up-western-unity/ar-AALjTLR
