On Thursday, to consolidate and provide the basis for these Herculean transformation efforts since the scattering, sometimes snakes of the Donald Trump administration, Biden traveled to the State Department to meet his tireless and visionary secretary of State Antony Blinken and personally thank foreign service officers for their service.
“The United States is back, diplomacy is back at the center of our foreign policy,” Biden told the world. “American alliances are our main asset, and leading with diplomacy means once again standing side by side with our key allies and partners.” He called on diplomats to include a few basic principles: “integrity in everything you do, transparency, and accountability to rebuild trust in America around the world.”
This represented a dramatic break with its predecessor, which had sought to completely dismantle or, at best, neutralize any effort to maintain a democratic and coherent American presence on the world stage. Some of these actions, such as the end of US participation in the Paris climate agreement, the nuclear pact on Iran and the Open Skies Agreement, while reducing the US presence since from Afghanistan to Germany, is now being reviewed or reversed.
Small suggestions from Press Secretary Jen Psaki and an even more comprehensive view of National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and State Department spokesman Ned Price, followed by Thursday’s speech by Biden himself, suggest several key pillars of this foreign policy. The first is that the actions of other countries and the American reaction must be, in virtually all cases, “in our interests,” as Price suggests when pressing issues as disparate as the coup in Burma and Russian activities at home or with regard to key treaties.
“The denominator we are adhering to in this case is our interests. It is clearly in our interest to have a full five-year extension of the new START agreement,” Price said Wednesday on the nuclear weapons treaty with Russia.
“As long as we commit Russia in a way that promotes American interests … we can also keep a clear eye on the challenges facing Russia. While we work with Russia to promote the interests of the United States, we will also demand that Russia explain the his recklessness and his opposite behavior, “he added. In short, a pretty strong exit from a Trump administration that rarely made Russia respond to much of anything.
In fact, even reading Biden’s first phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin was revealing. From the U.S. side came the news that the president “reaffirmed U.S. strong support for Ukraine’s sovereignty” and “raised other troubling issues, including hacking SolarWinds, reports of Russia rewarding U.S. soldiers United in Afghanistan, Interference US 2020 Elections and Aleksey Navalny Poisoning “.
“President Biden made it clear that the United States will act firmly in defense of its national interests in response to Russia’s actions that harm us or our allies,” the White House statement said. And in his speech on Thursday, Biden added that “the days of the United States rolling in the face of Russia’s aggressive actions, interfering in our elections, have ended cyber attacks and the poisoning of its citizens.”
Above all, Biden launched his version of the phone call well ahead of the Kremlin. “The presidents expressed their satisfaction after today’s exchange of diplomatic notes on an agreement to extend the new START treaty,” the Kremlin’s press service said.
And there are certain elements that some of Trump’s closest friends abroad will dislike, especially his decision to suspend all U.S. assistance to offensive operations in Yemen, an action aimed directly at Saudi Arabia and its leaders, who had developed close relations with Trump. “This war must end,” Biden said, in another dramatic break with Trump, who was all in support of his Saudi allies.
When Jake Sullivan briefed the press ahead of Biden’s visit, he outlined five key pillars of Biden’s new foreign and defense policy ranging from “re-hiring key institutions and agreements” to “reaffirming our values.” “as well as” compete more “effectively with our competitors in general”.
Biden, in his statements, mentioned that he was ready to work with China “when it does so in the interest of the United States.” Still, its leader Xi Jinping is the only major world leader Biden has not personally contacted.
On Wednesday, Ned Price had managed to expand an olive branch, noting that the administration will continue to be “guided by the policy of a single China.” This is unlikely to be seen with pleasure in Taiwan, where leaders hoped to continue to assert a minimum of independence from the continent and were bolstered by Trump’s first and clearly misinformed gift of an unprecedented phone call even before to reach office.
From the earliest hours of Biden’s presidency, world leaders were called to hear this enunciated worldview. Between Biden, Blinken and national security adviser Sullivan have convened at least 45 presidents, prime ministers, foreign ministers and national security advisers.
As proof of his priorities, Biden began with his two neighbors: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. He then contacted Britain’s Boris Johnson, France’s Emmanuel Macron and Germany’s Angela Merkel. Putin was followed by the secretary general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Jens Stoltenberg.
Above all, the new administration, which inherits the largest collection of red lines ever assembled at any time on the planet, is very cautious when it comes to paving the way or especially setting new ones. . Price, along with the State Department, has already submitted, admirably, any number of questions on this subject.
Price was asked on Wednesday if Iran’s refusal to have some of its sites inspected by the International Atomic Energy Agency would be a red line. “The kind of decisions you’re pointing out is not something the United States would want to make alone or would want to consider or contemplate alone,” he said. This marked a sharp break with Trump’s individual start-up policy. Price concluded, “I don’t want to draw any red lines from here, I’m sure I don’t today.”
However, in his speech, Biden made no reference to Iran’s nuclear deal, apparently willing to leave other aspects of its new foreign policy, building bridges with allies eager to restore the pact and winning. friends in Tehran with the end of military aid to anti-Iranian forces deployed in Yemen.
However, the first actions and words of the Biden administration were an admirable start to developing a truly consistent and constructive foreign policy that will protect and defend America and consolidate its values around the world.
