Biden wants to save his foreign policy before Trump comes. usa elections

With two months to go before the tsunami that will usher in Donald Trump’s second administration with his inauguration on January 20, Joe Biden and his government are trying to protect and preserve as much of their foreign policy as possible. A policy that the President of the United States wishes to leave as part of his legacy: a major international power guarantor of the multilateral system and head of a dense network of alliances around the world, as it does together with Europe in its defense Is reflected. And Ukraine’s NATO is facing attack from Russia. According to American media, this Sunday Biden authorized Kiev to use long-range American weapons to attack Russian territory. A major change in its policy.

The Republican election victory on November 5 predicts a strong turnaround. Ian Bremmer, founder of the consulting firm Eurasia Group, believes, “It’s essential to recognize: Trump’s isolationist vision is the vision of the world that Americans want for trade, for security, for social issues, represented by the United States. America does.” , Its international allies “can no longer rely on a component of American leadership that stems from shared Western values.”

Biden is an outgoing president, no longer able to exert pressure. A “lame duck”, as this figure is known in American political parlance. Or worse: “A super lame duck, because his successor is going to implement very different policies than he did. And there’s nothing I can do to stop those changes in a few months,” according to Erin Murphy. think tank Center for International Strategic Studies (CSIS). This is something about which other world leaders are clear: among the first to congratulate Trump were great allies of the Democrats, such as the French President, the multilateralist Emmanuel Macron, or the Ukrainian head of state, Volodymyr Zelensky. And what happens when Germany, another great partner in the traditional system, sees the government coalition collapse?

But the one who will occupy the Oval Office till January 20 is Biden only. And it intensifies its contacts and its steps to try to preserve this network of economic and security alliances as much as possible. So that Trump, who views international organizations from a commercial perspective, cannot solve geopolitical problems by eliminating them. Just last December, Congress approved a law that toughens the conditions for leaving NATO, just as Republicans tried to do in the final stages of his first presidency. This weekend, Biden established a secretariat with the leaders of South Korea and Japan to strengthen the trilateral alliance achieved during his mandate.

Russian aggression in Ukraine is one of the major issues that is of concern to the outgoing administration. For this reason, the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, traveled to Brussels last week to discuss with the allies the status of the war, a stable situation in the best of cases after almost three years and $200,000 million from Kiev’s allies. Contribution of more than. At their meeting at the White House on Wednesday, Biden stressed to Trump: Helping the invaded country is a vital American interest and it is essential, “During the transition and beyond, to give Ukraine the strongest position on the battlefield.” So that it can be in the strongest position at the negotiating table,” as White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan explained this week. Four days later, this argument was followed by long-range US missiles on Russian soil. Biden to authorize the use of The decision was issued, a sustained claim by President Volodymyr Zelensky that had until now been rejected due to fear of a brutal response from Moscow.

Without any assurances that the Republican administration will renew aid to Kiev – but with certainty on the contrary – the Democratic administration has also confirmed that it will provide all possible assistance to the remaining funds, approximately $6,000 million, of the approximately $64 billion approved this year . Help. Washington has warned European allies that it will be up to them to take care of most of the needs of the country, which has been invaded by Russia since January.

New attempt for ceasefire in Gaza

Biden believes that America’s allies are vital to America’s national security. They make us stronger. They increase our capabilities manifold. They take the burden off our shoulders. They contribute to our common objectives,” Sullivan also said. However, some of those contacts have made clear the limits of the Democrats’ position. Last week, Biden met at the White House with Israeli President Isaac Herzog in an effort to maintain pressure for a ceasefire agreement in Gaza that would end the war and allow hostage exchanges. An objective that has not been achieved in more than a year of war and which faces a courageous Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in the pursuit of “total victory”, who has threatened to impose even more harsh measures on his government. Trump’s first foreign appointments: from pro-Israel senator Marco Rubio, to the head of the State Department, to Israel’s future ambassador, Mike Huckabee, who took the name from the Biblical Jewish words Judea. And Samaria is what the rest of the world knows as the Palestinian West Bank.

This week, Blinken repeated the same pattern that has characterized the US position throughout the war: trying to pressure Israel with threats it will not follow through. after giving its ally a 30-day ultimatum to bring adequate levels of humanitarian aid to Gaza, with the warning that otherwise the United States would suspend its military aid. The deadline approached, the aid did not increase, but the State Department decided Israel was not going to stop it. Threats were made.

Gerald M. Feuerstein, former US ambassador to Yemen, explains, “Even if Biden imposes this veto on the arms shipment, the Israelis believe that Trump will immediately remove it as soon as he arrives, so it will have no effect.” In a video conference organized by the Middle East Institute in Washington.

This weekend, Biden turned his gaze east during the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Peru and the G-20 summit in Brazil, addressing, among other things, the future of economic cooperation agreements in Asia. Did. IPEF (Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity) from which Trump has already warned that he will withdraw America.

In Lima he met Chinese President Xi Jinping this Saturday to try to stabilize as much as possible the relationship with China, one of the most important and most complex in the world between two strategic rivals, which are worth 758 billion dollars. Share economic relations. Annual. Trump insisted that, after starting the trade war with the imposition of tariffs in 2028, he would raise them to 60% in his second term.

The Democratic president took the opportunity to pressure China over the aid it provides in the form of shipments of components to the war machine in Ukraine and to intervene against North Korea, which has sent about 10,000 troops to Russia with the express mission of fighting the invasion. In the country. The White House has warned that this could have destabilizing consequences for Europe and the Indo-Pacific. Xi, in turn, warned that “Taiwan, democracy and human rights, China’s political system and this country’s right to development are four non-transferable lines” to which Beijing will not tolerate challenges, according to Chinese news agency Xinhua.

Biden also became the first US president to visit the Amazon to assert his credentials against climate change, after Trump could have withdrawn leading power from international agreements on the matter.

But, at the same time, his visit once again exposed the weaknesses of the mandate. Although part of Biden’s mission was to strengthen ties between the United States and its allies in Asia Pacific and Latin America, his visit has been overshadowed by a longer and more eventful visit by Xi Jinping, who has criticized China’s rising The effect has been made clear. Area. According to Ryan Berg, Americas director at CSIS, the Chinese president inaugurated a megaport in the Peruvian city of Chancay, which “undercuts everything Biden has said about strengthening ties with Latin America or Asia Is”.

Officials in Brazil offered Biden an extra day to stay for a state visit after the G-20 summit, but the president preferred to return to Washington, Berg says. Who will take advantage of that gap and celebrate that journey on the 20th? Chinese leader.