WASHINGTON (AP) – Joe Biden makes his first major world appearance as president on Friday, giving the Group of Seven allies and other foreign leaders a look at their plans to dramatically reshape U.S. foreign policy , even while dealing with various international crises that are coming to an end.
Ahead of Biden’s virtual appearances at a G-7 meeting and the Munich Security Conference, the White House tried to stress that the new administration will move quickly to reorient the U.S. away from Donald Trump’s “America First” mantra by announcing major reversals of Trump administration policies.
Biden was expected to use his speech at the Munich conference to stress that the United States is ready to rejoin talks on the reinstatement of Iran’s 2015 multilateral nuclear deal abandoned by the Trump administration. The Biden administration on Thursday announced its desire to reclaim Iran and took action at the United Nations with the aim of restoring politics to what it was before President Donald Trump withdrew from the agreement on 2018.
Biden was also expected to address the economic and national security challenges posed by Russia and China, as well as the two-decade war in Afghanistan, where he faces a May 1 deadline to eliminate the 2,500 troops. remaining Americans under a peace deal negotiated with the Trump administration. the Taliban.
“Our alliances have endured and grown over the years because they are rooted in the richness of our shared democratic values,” Biden will say, according to excerpts from comments prepared at the Munich Conference published by the White House. “They are not transactional. They are not extractive. They are based on a vision of the future where every voice matters. “
According to a senior administration official who foresaw the president’s speech to reporters, his message should be rooted in an underlying argument that democracies, not autocracies, are models of governance that can best meet the challenges of the moment. .
“We are in the midst of a fundamental debate about the future direction of our world,” Biden will say, according to the excerpts. “Among those who argue that, given all the challenges we face, from the fourth industrial revolution to a global pandemic, autocracy is the best way forward and those who understand that democracy is essential to meet these challenges “.
At the G-7, administration officials said, Biden focused on what is left for the international community as it tries to extinguish the economic and public health crises created by the coronavirus pandemic.. White House officials said Biden would announce at the G-7 that the United States will soon begin releasing $ 4 billion in an international effort to strengthen the purchase and distribution of the coronavirus vaccine in poor nations, a program that Trump refused to support.
Both the G-7 and the annual security conference are held virtually due to the pandemic.
Biden’s turn on the world stage comes when on Friday the U.S. officially rejoins the Paris climate deal, the largest international effort to curb global warming. Trump announced in June 2017 that he would withdraw the United States from the benchmark deal, arguing that it would harm the US economy.
Biden announced the intention of the United States to rejoin the agreement the first day of his presidency, but he had to wait 30 days for the movement to take effect. He has said he will include considerations on climate change in all major domestic and foreign policy decisions his administration faces.
Some inevitably perceive their first foray into the international summit as simply an attempt to correct the course of Trump’s agenda. The new president, however, has made it clear that his domestic and foreign policy agenda will not be just a erasure of the Trump years.
“I’m sick of talking about Donald Trump,” Biden lamented earlier this week at a CNN town hall in Milwaukee.
Biden, on the trail of the campaign, pledged to reaffirm U.S. leadership in the international community, a role Trump often shunned while complaining that frequently-charged allies too often took advantage of the United States.
To that end, the White House said Biden would encourage G-7 partners to meet their commitments to COVAX, a World Health Organization initiative to improve access to vaccines, while reopening the American breakwater.
Trump had withdrawn the U.S. from the WHO and refused to join more than 190 countries in the COVAX program. The former Republican president accused the WHO of covering up China’s erroneous steps in handling the virus at the start of the public health crisis that unleashed a strong U.S. economy.
It remains to be seen how the G-7 allies will take Biden’s calls for greater international cooperation in vaccine distribution, as the U.S. refused to participate in the Trump initiative and there are growing calls for the Democratic administration to distribute some U.S.-made vaccine supplies overseas.
French President Emmanuel Macron has called on the United States and European nations to allocate up to 5% of the current supply of vaccines to developing countries, the kind of vaccine diplomacy that China and Russia have begun to deploy.
And earlier this week, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres harshly criticized the “uneven and uneven” distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, noting that 10 countries have administered 75% of all vaccinations.
Biden, who announced last week that the United States will have enough vaccine supplies by the end of July to inoculate 300 million people, remains focused on making sure every American is vaccinated, administration officials say. .
The Allies will also listen carefully to what Biden will hear about an approaching crisis with Iran.
Iran reported this week to the International Atomic Energy Agency that it would suspend voluntary implementation next week of a provision in the 2015 agreement that allowed UN nuclear monitors to conduct inspections of undeclared sites in Iran at short notice, unless the United States lifts sanctions on 23 February. .
Secretary of State Antony Blinken told his counterparts in France, Germany and the United Kingdom on Thursday that the United States is ready to enter into talks with Iran to try to reach an agreement to return to full compliance. 2015 nuclear deal, according to a joint statement declaration of the three nations.
Trump withdrew the United States from the pact negotiated by the Obama administration and renewed sanctions against Tehran, a step that Biden, as a candidate, said was short-sighted and dangerous.
But the joint statement by Blinken and the other ministers made it clear that the Biden administration is still waiting for Iran to fully comply with the 2015 agreement again before the United States rejoins. He also urged Iran to “consider the consequences of such serious action, especially at this time of renewed diplomatic opportunity.”