On Thursday, Biden traveled to the State Department to meet his tireless, visionary Secretary of State Antony Blinken and to thank him personally for laying a foundation and a foundation for these Herculean efforts to transform the scattered, sometimes savage meanderings of the Donald Trump administration. foreign service officers for their service.
“America is back, diplomacy is back at the heart of our foreign policy,” Biden told the world. “America’s alliances are our greatest asset, and leading diplomatic means once again standing shoulder to shoulder with our allies and key partners.” He called on diplomats to incorporate a few core principles, “Integrity in everything you do, transparency and accountability to restore trust in America around the world.”
This marked a dramatic break with its predecessor, who had sought to completely dismantle, or at best, neuter all efforts to maintain America’s coherent, democratic presence on the world stage. Some of those actions, like the end of US involvement in the Paris climate agreement, Iran’s nuclear pact, and the Open Skies Agreement, while America’s dwindling presence from Afghanistan to Germany, are now being revised or reversed.
Small hints from press secretary Jen Psaki and an even broader vision from National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and State Department spokesman Ned Price, followed by Thursday’s historic speech by Biden himself, suggest several key pillars of this foreign policy. First, the actions of other countries and America’s response must be “in our interest” in almost all cases, as Price suggested on questions as varied as the coup in Burma and Russian activities at home or in relation to major treaties.
“The denominator we are sticking to in this case is our interests. It is clearly in our interest to have a full five-year extension of the new START agreement,” Price said on Wednesday of the nuclear weapons treaty with Russia. .
While we engage Russia in ways that advance US interests … we can also remain focused on the challenges Russia poses. Even if we work with Russia to advance US interests, we will also hold Russia accountable. calling out for his reckless and his hostile behavior, ”he added. In short, a pretty sharp departure from a Trump administration that rarely held Russia responsible for much of anything.
Even the reading of Biden’s inaugural phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin was indeed revealing. It was reported from the US side that the President “ reaffirmed the United States’ strong support for the sovereignty of Ukraine ” and “ raised other concerns, including the SolarWinds hack, reports that Russia is granting bounties to US soldiers in Afghanistan, Meddling in the 2020 United States Elections and the Poisoning of Aleksey Navalny. “
“President Biden made it clear that the United States will take decisive action in defense of its national interests in response to actions by Russia that harm us or our allies,” the White House statement said. And in his speech on Thursday, Biden added, “Gone are the days of the United States turning in the face of Russia’s aggressive actions, interference in our elections, cyber-attacks and the poisoning of its citizens.”
Above all, Biden released his version of the phone call well ahead of the Kremlin. “The presidents were pleased with today’s diplomatic exchange of notes on an agreement to renew the new START treaty,” the Kremlin press service said.
And there are certain elements that will not please some of Trump’s closest friends abroad – most notably, his decision to suspend all US aid for offensive operations in Yemen, an action directly targeting Saudi Arabia and its leaders, who are close. had developed ties with Trump. “This war must end,” Biden said in another dramatic break with Trump, who was all in support of his Saudi allies.
When Jake Sullivan informed the press prior to the visit to Biden, he outlined five key pillars of Biden’s new foreign and defense policy, ranging from ‘re-engaging key institutions and agreements’ to’ reaffirming our values’ and ‘ more competitive ‘. effective with our competitors across the board. ”
Biden said in his comments that he is willing to work with China “if it is in America’s interest to do so.” Still, leader Xi Jinping is the only major world leader who has not personally contacted Biden.
On Wednesday, Ned Price had managed to expand an olive branch, noting that the administration “will continue to be guided by the one-China policy.” This is unlikely to be happily watched in Taiwan, where leaders hoped to continue to claim some degree of independence from the mainland and were bolstered by Trump’s early and clearly ill-informed gift of an unprecedented phone call, even before he took office.
From the first hours of the Biden presidency, world leaders were called to hear this worldview proclaimed. Between Biden, Blinken and National Security Advisor Sullivan, they have convened at least 45 Presidents, Prime Ministers, Foreign Ministers and National Security Advisers.
As proof of their priorities, Biden started with his two neighbors – Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. He then contacted the British Boris Johnson, the French Emmanuel Macron and the German Angela Merkel. Putin was followed by the Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Jens Stoltenberg.
Most of all, the new government, which has inherited the largest collection of red lines ever amassed on the planet at any point in time, is pretty cautious about finding its way through or especially setting up new ones. Price, along with the State Department, has already admirably answered a number of questions on this topic.
Price was asked on Wednesday whether Iran’s refusal to have some of its sites inspected by the International Atomic Energy Agency would be a red line. “The kind of decisions you are referring to are not something the United States would only want to take or consider or consider alone,” he said. This was a sharp break from Trump’s go-it-alone policy. Price concluded, “I don’t want to put red lines from here, especially today.”
Still, in his speech, Biden made no reference to Iran’s nuclear accord – apparently willing to allow other aspects of its new foreign policy – to build bridges to allies who wanted to restore the pact and win friends in Tehran with the end of the military. help. to anti-Iranian forces deployed in Yemen.
All in all, the Biden administration’s fairly early actions and words were an admirable start to developing a truly consistent and constructive foreign policy that will protect and defend America and strengthen its values around the world.
