WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden, in his first days in office, promised that his predecessor would dramatically rearrange U.S. foreign policy. Still, on some of the more difficult issues, he has shown his preference for using the scalpel over the hammer as he implements his own agenda and tries to distance himself from Trumpism.
Early preferences for precaution and incrementalism occur as Biden has repeatedly stated that “America is back.” But in early foreign policy tests, Biden has shown, as many of his predecessors have experienced, that it is easier said than done to move away from the policies of the former commander-in-chief.
“President X is almost always different from Candidate X,” said Michael Green, who served as a senior National Security Council official in the George W. Bush administration. “It’s just a matter of time before reality splashes them with cold water.”
As a candidate, Biden called Saudi Arabia a “pariah.” He promised to be tough with Russian autocrat Vladimir Putin. And he promised to take a radically different approach to China than Trump.
But in his early presidency, Biden’s foreign policy decisions have often reflected more realism than optimism: a commander-in-chief approaching the world as the candidate who spoke with idealism about the use of American power to reshape the world.
By the way, Biden has begun to live up to the promises of his campaign by working to rebuild coalitions with allies that were often neglected by Donald Trump (especially when it comes to dealing with China), as well as defending democracy, Green said. senior vice president. President of Asia and Japan Chair of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
He sent Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to meet with Pacific allies Japan and South Korea for four days of talks which began Monday. Austin is heading to India to meet with his counterpart, while Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan are meeting Thursday with senior Chinese officials in Anchorage.
Biden’s also joined the Paris climate deal and signaled to Iran its willingness to re-enter the 2015 nuclear deal, both pacts annulled by Trump.
But critics – and some allies – point to his decision to decline to sanction Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, for the murder of a Saudi journalist based in the United States. And while his administration recently imposed sanctions on top Russian officials for poisoning and imprisoning an opposition leader, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle say they want him to take tougher measures against officials closer to the Putin’s inner circle.
He has also refused to rescind hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs imposed by Trump against China or to express interest in derailing Trump’s efforts to withdraw Chinese telecommunications companies from the New York Stock Exchange or lift bans of Trump in Chinese Applications.
Sullivan withdraws against the idea that Biden’s foreign policy approach has been modulated since his candidacy. He noted that Biden has recalibrated the relationship with the Saudis by ending US support for the five-year military offensive led by the Saudis in Yemen. Biden has also clashed with Russia over the imprisonment of opposition leader Alexi Navalny, Russia’s alleged involvement in a massive cyberespionage campaign, and reports of Russian rewards to U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
“The president is the most optimistic,” Sullivan told reporters shortly after Biden met virtually Friday with other leaders of the Indo-Pacific-focused “Quad” group that includes Australia, India and Japan. Sullivan added, “In the end, his metric is what will advance American values and interests.”
Still, the realistic dilemma against the optimist Biden has faced is remarkable.
On the campaign trail, Biden spoke of making Saudi Arabia “pay the price” of human rights abuses and “make them the outcast they are.”
A recently released unclassified U.S. intelligence report determined that the Saudi Crown Prince probably approved of the horrific massacre of U.S. resident and journalist Jamal Khashoggi. But Biden refused to take action against the prince so as not to alienate the man who is expected to one day rule the kingdom that the U.S. considers a critical counterweight to the region for Iran.
Human rights activist Bill Browder said Biden’s decision not to hit the Crown Prince with the Magnitsky Act (Obama-era legislation that authorizes the U.S. government to punish those it considers human rights violators, freeze his property and ban them from entering the US) sent the wrong message not only to the Saudis, but to the autocrats around the world.
“I can’t think of a more self-destructive test, a greater failure of a foreign policy test for the Biden administration than this first test,” said Browder, who was a key advocate in to pass Magnitsky legislation.
Biden during the campaign described Russia as the “greatest threat” to US security and alliances and despised Trump for his welcoming relationship with Putin.
But when earlier this month the Treasury Department ordered sanctions against several senior Russian officials and added a government research institute and 13 companies to the U.S. list for export restrictions on intoxication and imprisonment. Navalny, even some allies suggested that Biden go further.
“Substantial work remains to restrict the ability of corrupt Russian actors to continue accessing the US financial system and I hope the administration will take additional steps to strengthen our financial defenses against gross Russian money,” said Sen. Robert Menendez , Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Republicans have denounced that Biden is not doing enough to stop a gas pipeline in Europe that many believe will give Russia a tool of political influence over energy-dependent Central and Eastern European nations. They point out that Biden has made no move beyond what the Trump administration took during its minor months to try to thwart Germany’s North Stream 2 gas pipeline led by Russian state-owned gas company Gazprom.
“We are deeply concerned that strong statements by the administration opposing the pipeline do not coincide with equally strong actions,” said Texas Representative Michael McCaul, a Republican equities member of the U.S. Foreign Affairs Committee. Chamber.
But with Biden trying to repair the relationship between the United States and Germany, a Trump tension, putting too much pressure on the pipeline could be difficult.
As for China, Biden has had a clear eye on seeing Beijing as the biggest competitor in the United States.
Last month, it announced a Pentagon review of China’s national security strategy as part of its commitment to recalibrate the U.S. approach with Beijing.
In almost every one of his calls for fellow heads of state, Biden has inevitably raised his concerns about China as a competitor and called for the creation of coalitions to cope with Beijing’s growing economic weight.
He has promised a different approach to that of Trump, who regularly blames the virus in China and has referred to it mockingly in xenophobic language. But Biden has stayed especially on the former Republican president’s tariffs on Chinese aluminum and other commodities, at least for now.
Green said the campaign’s harsh rhetoric against opponents, such as China and Russia, and complicated allies, such as Saudi Arabia, followed by a measured approach once in office, may have been “somewhat calculated.” and that could benefit Biden in the long run.
“I think as a practical matter, when you campaign with hard poetry, the prose of governing becomes easier,” Green said. “You want to get into these tough relations with China, Russia, Iran and the Saudis, which seem a little scary, being a little difficult.”