WASHINGTON (AP) – A new-age ritual is taking shape in the Biden White House, one that begins with hefty information packages, warfare on the “what-ifs” and Oval Office discussions on how to deal with this or that specifically speaking American ally or adversary.
Twelve times since presidency, President Joe Biden has called a world leader after reinstating a standard of the White House, looted by Donald Trump: strong preparation. Unnecessary deviations and domination of fellow heads of state are gone.
The changes to telephone diplomacy about style and essence, as Biden sought to send the message to foreign leaders – much embittered by Trump’s habit of harassing his peers and merging personal interests with U.S. national security – that Biden was determined to to restore relationship with the world.
“They got the idea that they should manage alliances really well,” said Matthew Goodman, who served on the White House staff during the administration of Barack Obama and George W. Bush. “It’s an important organizing principle because they want to turn Trump around and get alliances back on track. Call preparation is part of that. ”
Biden’s foreign policy will ultimately be judged on results more than form or preparation. But his approach so far is a clear change from Trump, who has apparently had better relations with autocrats like Russia’s Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un than with many historic US allies. The former president has regularly strayed from telephone conversations and advice given by his assistants for his dialogue with world leaders.
Leaked transcripts from conversations showed that Trump had diplomatic goods in the days after his administration and the President of Mexico, Enrique Peña Nieto, paid tribute against publicly saying that Mexico would never pay for a southern border wall, a signature of the president’s 2016 campaign. Trump also complained to Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull that he is forcing Trump to endure the “most unpleasant call” and “worse than I am” because he detained refugees on small islands off Australia.
Most importantly, the Republican president’s call in 2019 with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy led to Trump’s accusation after it came to light that Trump had asked him to ‘do us a favor’ and Biden and his son To investigate Hunter’s activity in Ukraine.
As has been the practice with previous administrations, Biden advisers usually prepare the president with a package of written background information, including summaries of recent developments in the country, a summary of previous interactions with the leader, discussion points on issues to highlight , as well as’ as’ asked ‘notes to shape the president’s response to issues with the buttons his peer can raise.
Trump aides realized early on that the president had little patience for informing material. Initially, they offered him a six-page pre-order with attachments before calls, but it turned out to be too long. So they did a one-page version. Trump later received postcards that usually contain only three talking points.
“Sweating the details of every word in a memorandum did not matter, because communicating the right message on behalf of the United States did not matter to the president,” said Frances Brown, a senior adviser. served for national security, said. Council in the Trump and Obama administrations. “For an NSC staff, it invited an existential crisis.”
Last week, Biden called Chinese Xi Jinping for a two-hour conversation. in which he expressed concern about human rights violations and unfair trade practices. In a call with Putin, Biden had earlier condemned the imprisonment of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and pushed Putin on his country’s involvement in a major cyber-espionage campaign in the US.
Before both calls, senior officials from the Biden administration gave reporters a preview of what the president was planning to say, a move that meant helping potential efforts by Beijing and Moscow to send public messages about the talks. control.
Biden’s first leadership call as president went to Justin Trudeau, Canada, the prime minister who once dismissed Trump as ‘very dishonest and weak’.
For Biden, chatting with Trudeau was a difficult conversation and a partly easy chat. Biden explained his decision to halt construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline, a Canada-to-US project that supports Trudeau. Biden also recalled the family ties of his late first wife with Toronto and his own 2016 visit to Ottawa when Trudeau honored him with a state dinner.
According to Canadian officials, the two leaders discussed the coronavirus pandemic, the economy and two Canadians detained in China in apparent retaliation for Canada’s arrest of a top executive of Huawei.
One senior Canadian official familiar with the call said Biden looked well prepared for the half-hour call and noted that it was going to take longer than the prime minister had with Trump.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who has been flattering Trump and suing the court for years, said in an interview with CBS on Sunday ‘Face the Nation’ that his conversation with Biden was ‘fantastic’ and that they were talking about issues such as climate change. NATO, Iran and more.
The White House in particular published an official photo of Biden meeting in the Oval Office with National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and the senior director of NSC’s European Affairs, Amanda Sloat, as he prepares for his recent call with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
James Carafano, a national security analyst at the Conservative Heritage Foundation, said that in his first round of calls, Biden was primarily concerned with sending out the message that he was targeting Trump on the page. But Carafano argues that the new president largely avoided describing in detail the US foreign policy in detail.
“He did not really go beyond what we are going to do with friends and allies,” Carafano said.
Biden made clear his desire to return to diplomacy after Trump withdrew from the Obama-backed international nuclear deal with Iran.
Around the world, much attention is also paid to countries that have not yet been added to Biden’s call list.
The new president has not yet spoken to Turk Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has had a close relationship with Trump, even though the US and Turkey have been at odds over a number of issues, including Syria’s policy and the decision of Turkey to buy Russia’s advanced air defense missile. . The latter urged Washington to suspend Turkey from its F-35 stealth fighter program.
Praying on the campaign trail, Erdogan called himself an autocrat and had to make an official apology as vice president in 2014 after suggesting that Turkey played a role in the rise of the Islamic State group.
He also did not call Saudi Arabia. The country’s ruler, King Salman, has built a strong relationship with Trump despite increasing investigations into civilian casualties in his war in Yemen and international outcry over the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Turkey.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki stressed that Biden’s government was recalibrating relations with the Saudis. She said she expects Biden to speak to King Salman at an ‘appropriate time’.
Israel’s former ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, last week tweeted a list of ten countries he said received calls from Biden. “Is it time to name the leader of #Israel, the closest ally of the #US?” Danon posted.
Psaki said so far nothing should be read in the absence of call.
“This is not a deliberate disciple,” she said.
Psaki added on Tuesday that a call to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would come soon, and that he would be the first leader in the region to name Biden.
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Gillies reported from Toronto.