Today's D Brief: Biden heads to Europe; US gear in a Chinese lab; Afghanistan pullout half done; Border control; And a bit more.
By Ben Watson
June 9, 2021 10:55 AM ET
The D Brief
U.S. President Joe Biden is wheels-up for Europe, two days ahead of the start of a meeting between leaders of the Group of Seven nations in Cornwall, U.K.
What’s Biden want to achieve with this first stop? “Strengthening the alliance and mak[ing] it clear to [Russian autocratic President Vladimir] Putin and to China that Europe and the United States are tight, and the G7 is going to move,” he told reporters before boarding Air Force One on Wednesday morning. He also said he has what a reporter referred to as “a vaccine strategy for the world,” and Biden said he’ll announce it later during the trip.
As far as his early read on Putin and some kind of “understanding” when it comes to cybersecurity, Biden replied, “Who knows at this point. It’s going to be a subject of our discussion.”
Among the big questions going into this trip: “Can Biden save the West?” That’s what Ishaan Tharoor asks today in his foreign policy column for the Washington Post.
https://www.defenseone.com/threats/2021/06/the-d-brief-june-09-2021/174603/
