Joe Biden has decided not to beat around the bush. The US president accused Vladimir Putin of being a “murderer” and his team greeted a Chinese delegation with a volley of accusations, an undiplomatic style that illustrates his willingness to resist the “autocrats.”
Perhaps a more traditional foreign policy was expected from the longtime senator and then vice president, after his predecessor Donald Trump’s inconvenient tweets and thunderous formulas.
But the first two months of his tenure, and even more so in recent days, have set a strong tone.
When asked by a reporter if he thought the Russian president was “a murderer,” Joe Biden replied in the affirmative without hesitation.
And to those questioned about a possible misstep, the White House assured that the president did not regret his words.
This is not the first time that the Democrat has spoken harsh words to the head of the Kremlin.
“I clearly told President Putin, in a very different way from my predecessor, that the days when the United States submitted to the aggressive acts of Russia … were over,” he said in early February, shortly after the first telephone conversation between the two.
Biden showed the same steadfastness with Chinese President Xi Jinping. “It’s very difficult,” “it doesn’t have an ounce of democracy,” she said of him in February.
“If we don’t act, they will crush us,” he added a few days later, after a two-hour marathon call with his counterpart.
– America’s “values” –
While this blunt language is sometimes reminiscent of Trump, the context is very different.
“Trump had personal affinities with autocrats, with ‘strong men.’ He looked up to them,” said Thomas Wright, a member of the Brookings Institution think tank.
Trump actually had a bigger problem with America’s allies. He went crazy for his allies than his rivals.
Since Joe Biden took power in January, they have worked with his team to seduce friends in Washington and denounce the “authoritarianism” of Moscow and Beijing.
The harsh words are part of this strategy and a foreign policy that has made the defense of the human rights and “values” of the United States a priority.
“They are concerned about the advancement of authoritarianism and think democracies need to work more closely together to counter it,” Wright told AFP.
The US president also wants to organize a “summit of democracies” for an undetermined date.
Perhaps most surprisingly, his Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, a sometimes reclusive, old-fashioned diplomat, greeted Chinese foreign ministers in Alaska on Thursday with an offensive speech, accusing Beijing, in front of cameras around the world, “ a threat to stability. “
“These ways are far from diplomatic etiquette!” Replied China.
For Thomas Wright, “this reveals that the relationship between the United States and China is determined by rivalry and competition.”
According to James Carafano of the conservative Heritage Foundation, Blinken was “absolutely right” to be so steadfast and the Biden administration has nothing to lose by being so stubborn.
“Being tough on Russia or China leads to consensus on both the Democratic and Republican side. Everyone wants to be tough” on these American opponents, he says.
Carafano also notes that there is great continuity between the Democrats’ early acts and those of the former Republican government, which had opposed the two rival powers, even as President Trump tried to “ befriend ” Vladimir Putin or Xi Jinping. to organise.