To provide a basis for these Herculean efforts to transform the sharp, sometimes wild twist of Donald Trump’s government on Thursday, Biden traveled to the State Department to meet his tireless, visionary Secretary of State Antony Blinken and personally thanked foreign service officials for their service. .
“America is back, diplomacy is at the center of our foreign policy again,” Biden told the world. “America’s alliances are our greatest asset, and to lead with diplomacy means that we must once again stand shoulder – to – shoulder with our allies and key partners.” He called on diplomats to include some core principles, “integrity in everything you do, transparency and accountability to rebuild trust in America around the world.”
It was a dramatic break with its predecessor, which sought to completely or at best sterilize any attempts to maintain a cohesive, democratic presence of America on the world stage. Some of these actions, such as the end of US involvement in the Paris climate agreement, the Iran nuclear deal and the Open Skies agreement, while the US presence shrinks from Afghanistan to Germany, are now being reviewed or reversed.
Small tips by press secretary Jen Psaki, and an even more comprehensive vision by national security adviser Jake Sullivan and State Department spokesman Ned Price, followed by Thursday’s exhaustive speech by Biden himself, point to several important pillars of this foreign policy. The first is that action by other countries and America’s response must be ‘in our interest’ in virtually every case, as Price suggested when pressed on questions as diverse as the coup in Burma and Russian operations at home or with regard to key treaties. .
“The denominator we are fulfilling in this case is our interests. It is clear in our interest that the New START agreement, five years, be fully extended,” Price said on Wednesday about the nuclear arms deal with Russia. .
“While engaging Russia in ways that advance American interests … we can also remain clear about the challenges that Russia poses. Even if we work with Russia to advance American interests, we will also hold Russia accountable for its recklessness. and its contradictory behavior, ”he added. In short, a fairly sharp departure from a Trump administration that has rarely held Russia responsible for much of anything.
Even the reading of Biden’s first telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin was revealing. From the US side comes the report that the president ‘reaffirmed US support for Ukraine’s sovereignty’, and ‘raised other concerns, including the SolarWinds cap, reports of Russia plundering US troops in Afghanistan, interference in the 2020 U.S. election, and the poisoning of Aleksey Navalny. ‘
“President Biden has made it clear that the United States will certainly act to defend its national interests in response to actions by Russia that harm us or our allies,” the White House said in a statement. And in his Thursday speech, Biden added “the days of the United States rolling over in the face of Russia’s aggressive actions, interfering in our election, cyberattacks and the poisoning of its citizens are over.”
Above all, Biden issued his version of the phone call well before the Kremlin. “The presidents have expressed their satisfaction after today’s exchange of diplomatic notes on an agreement to extend the New START Treaty,” the Kremlin press service said.
And there are certain elements that will not please some of Trump’s best friends abroad – in particular his decision to suspend all US aid to insulting operations in Yemen, a move aimed directly at Saudi Arabia and its leaders. , who developed close ties with Trump. “This war must end,” Biden said in a dramatic breakup with Trump who was an all-in to support his Saudi allies.
When Jake Sullivan informed the press prior to the visit to Biden, he set out five key pillars in the new Biden foreign and defense policy, ranging from ‘re-involvement of key institutions and agreements’ to ‘affirming our values’, as well as ‘to compete more’ effectively with our competitors across the board. ‘
Biden mentioned in his remarks that he was willing to cooperate with China “if it is in America’s interest to do so.” Yet his leader Xi Jinping is the only major world leader Biden has not personally contacted.
On Wednesday, Ned Price managed to expand an olive branch, noting that the government would still be ‘led by the one-China policy’. It will probably not be seen with pleasure in Taiwan, where leaders hoped to achieve a certain degree of independence from the mainland and were stopped by Trump’s early and clearly uninformed gift of an unprecedented phone call even before he took office. has.
From the first hours of the Biden presidency, world leaders were called upon to hear this worldview. Between Biden, Blinken and National Security Adviser Sullivan, they called at least 45 presidents, prime ministers, foreign ministers and national security advisers.
As proof of their priorities, Biden starts with his two neighbors – Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. He then reached out to Britain’s Boris Johnson, France’s Emmanuel Macron and Germany’s Angela Merkel. Putin was followed by North Atlantic Treaty Organization secretary general Jens Stoltenberg.
Above all, the new administration, which has compiled the largest collection of red lines ever on the planet at any given time, is very careful to go through them or especially to establish new ones. Price, with the State Department, has wonderfully asked a number of questions on just this topic.
Price was asked on Wednesday whether Iran’s refusal to have some of its sites examined by the International Atomic Energy Agency would come down to a red line. “The kind of decisions you point to are not something the United States wants to make alone or to consider or consider alone,” he said. It was a sharp break with the Trump-alone policy. Price concluded: “I do not want to draw any red lines from here, certainly not today.”
Yet Biden made no reference in his speech to the Iran deal – apparently willing to allow other aspects of his new foreign policy – to build bridges to allies eager to restore the treaty and win friends in Tehran with the end of military aid. to anti-Iranian forces assembled in Yemen.
All in all, the early action and words of the Biden administration were an admirable start to developing a truly consistent and constructive foreign policy that would protect and defend America and strengthen its values around the world.
