WASHINGTON (AP) – Joe Biden makes his first major appearance on the world stage as president on Friday, giving the group of seven allies and other foreign leaders a look at his plans to dramatically reform US foreign policy, even if he handles a number of international crises emerging.
Ahead of Biden’s virtual appearance at a G-7 meeting and the Munich Security Conference, the White House sought to emphasize that the new government would move quickly to reorient the US, away from Donald Trump’s “America First” mantra by announce major reversals of Trump. administration policy.
Biden is expected to use his speech at the conference in Munich to emphasize that the US is ready to address again the re-introduction of the 2015 multilateral nuclear deal in Iran left by the Trump administration. The Biden administration announced Thursday that it wants to retake Iran, and has called on the United Nations to restore policy to what it was before President Donald Trump withdrew from the agreement in 2018..
Biden is also expected to address the economic and national security challenges facing Russia and China, as well as the two-decade war in Afghanistan, where he faces a May 1 deadline to remove the remaining 2,500 U.S. troops under Trump administration negotiates peace deal with Taliban.
“Our partnerships 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 prepared remarks about the Munich Conference issued by the White House. “They are not transactional. They were not withdrawn. They are built on a vision of the future where every voice matters. ‘
His message had to be strained by an underlying argument that democracies – not autocracies – are models of government that can present the best challenges, according to a senior administration official who previewed the president’s speech to reporters.
“We are in the midst of a fundamental debate about the future direction of our world,” Biden will say according to the excerpts. “Between those who argue that autocracy is the best way forward, given all the challenges we face, from the fourth industrial revolution to a global pandemic, and those who understand that democracy is essential to meet the challenges to offer. “
At the G-7, administrative officials said, Biden is focusing on what lies ahead for the international community as it seeks to eradicate the public health and economic crises caused by the coronavirus pandemic.. White House officials said Biden would announce at the G-7 that the US would soon release $ 4 billion for an international effort to boost the purchase and distribution of coronavirus vaccine to poor countries, a program that Trump refused has to support.
Both the G-7 and the annual security conference are virtually being held due to the pandemic.
Biden’s turn on the world stage comes when the US officially rejoins the Paris climate agreement on Friday, the largest international effort to limit global warming. Trump announced in June 2017 that he was removing the US from the characteristic agreement, arguing that it would undermine the US economy.
Biden announces US intention to rejoin agreement on the first day of his presidency, but he had to wait 30 days for the move to take effect. He said he would summarize considerations on climate change in every major domestic and foreign policy decision his government faces.
Some people will inevitably see his first foray into the international summit as merely an attempt to correct Trump’s agenda. However, the new president has made it clear that his domestic and foreign policy agenda will not simply be an erasure of the Trump years.
“I’m tired of talking about Donald Trump,” Biden lamented earlier this week in a CNN City Hall in Milwaukee.
Biden on the campaign trail has vowed to reassert US leadership in the international community, a role that Trump has often shied away from, while complaining that the US is being exploited too often by freelance allies.
To that end, the White House said Biden would encourage G-7 partners to implement their promises to COVAX, a World Health Organization initiative to improve access to vaccines, even if it reopens the U.S. spigot.
Trump withdrew the US 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 mistakes in dealing with the virus at the start of the public health crisis that unraveled a strong US economy.
It remains to be seen how G-7 allies will accept Biden’s calls for greater international cooperation on the distribution of vaccines, as the US has refused to take part in the initiative under Trump and there are increasing calls for the government of the Democrat is to distribute vaccine supplies overseas to a number of U.S. manufacturers.
French President Emmanuel Macron has called on US and European countries to allocate up to 5% of current vaccine supplies to developing countries – the kind of vaccine diplomacy that China and Russia have begun to use.
And earlier this week, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres sharply criticized the “wildly unfair and unfair” distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, pointing out that ten countries have administered 75% of all vaccinations.
Biden, which announced last week that the U.S. would have enough stock of the vaccine by the end of July to vaccinate 300 million people, remains focused on making sure every American is vaccinated, administration officials say.
Allies will also listen carefully to hear what Biden has to say about an impending crisis with Iran.
Iran has notified the International Atomic Energy Agency this week that it will suspend the voluntary implementation of a provision in the 2015 agreement next week that will allow UN nuclear monitors to conduct inspections of unexplained sites in Iran at short notice, unless the US sanctions reversed by 23 February. .
Foreign Minister Antony Blinken told his counterparts from France, Germany and the United Kingdom on Thursday that the United States was prepared to enter into talks with Iran in an effort to reach an agreement on full compliance with the nuclear deal in 2015, according to a joint statement by the three nations.
Trump withdrew the United States from the agreement negotiated by the Obama administration and renewed sanctions against Tehran, a move that Biden said as a candidate was short-sighted and dangerous.
But the joint statement from Blinken and the other ministers made it clear that the Biden government still expects Iran to return to full agreement with the 2015 agreement before the US comes into contact again. It also urged Iran to “consider the consequences of such serious action, especially in this time of renewed diplomatic opportunity.”