America May Be ‘Back’ in Europe, but How Much Has Really Changed?

Despite the feel-good imagery expected to be on display at the G7 meeting, many Europeans suspect that President Biden is little more interested in give-and-take than was his predecessor.

FALMOUTH, England — Few images captured the rupture in trans-Atlantic relations better than that of President Donald J. Trump in 2018, arms folded across his chest as he resisted Chancellor Angela Merkel and other frustrated leaders in their doomed effort to salvage their summit meeting in Canada. When the same leaders reconvene in Cornwall, England, on Friday, President Biden will reverse the body language, replacing impasse with embrace. But beneath the imagery, it is not clear how much more open the United States will be to give-and-take with Europe than it was under Mr. Trump. The trans-Atlantic partnership has always been less reciprocal than its champions like to pretend — a marriage in which one partner, the United States, carried the nuclear umbrella. Now, with China replacing the Soviet Union as America’s archrival, the two sides are less united than they were during the Cold War, a geopolitical shift that lays bare longstanding stresses between them.