WASHINGTON (AP) – Joe Biden will make his first major appearance on the global stage as president on Friday, offering Group of Seven allies and other foreign leaders a glimpse of his plans to drastically reshape US foreign policy, even as he deals. with a series of international crises that are reaching their peak.
Before Biden’s virtual appearances at a G-7 meeting and at the Munich Security Conference, the White House sought to underline that the new administration will act quickly to redirect the US away from Donald Trump’s “America First” mantra, announcing major Trump’s political administration reversals.
Biden was expected to use his speech at the Munich conference to emphasize that the US is ready to return to negotiations on the re-entry into the 2015 multilateral nuclear agreement with Iran abandoned by the Trump administration. The Biden government announced on Thursday its desire to reengage Iran and took action at the United Nations to restore the policy to what it was before President Donald Trump withdrew from the deal in 2018..
Biden must also face the economic and national security challenges posed by 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 US troops under a peace deal negotiated by the Trump government the Taliban.
“Our partnerships have lasted and grown over the years because they are rooted in the richness of our shared democratic values,” Biden will say, according to excerpts from comments prepared for the Munich Conference released by the White House. “They are not transactional. They are not extractive. They are built on a vision of the future where every voice is important. “
His message was surrounded by an underlying argument that democracies – not autocracies – are models of governance that can best face the challenges of the moment, according to a senior government official who predicted the president’s speech to reporters.
“We are in the middle of a fundamental debate about the future direction of our world,” says Biden, according to the excerpts. “Among those who argue that – given all the challenges we face, from the fourth industrial revolution to a global pandemic – autocracy is the best way forward and those who understand that democracy is essential to address these challenges.”
At the G-7, government officials said, Biden was focusing on what lies ahead for the international community, while trying to extinguish public health and economic crises created by the coronavirus pandemic.. White House officials said Biden would announce at the G-7 that the United States will soon begin to release $ 4 billion for an international effort to strengthen the purchase and distribution of coronavirus vaccine to poor nations, a program that Trump has refused. to support.
Both the G-7 and the annual security conference are being held virtually because of the pandemic.
Biden’s turn on the world stage comes as the United States officially reinstates the Paris climate agreement, the biggest international effort to curb global warming. Trump announced in June 2017 that he was withdrawing the U.S. from the historic deal, arguing that it would hurt the American economy.
Biden announced the United States’ intention to return to the agreement on the first day of his presidency, but he had to wait 30 days for the change to take effect. He said he will include climate change considerations in all major domestic and foreign policy decisions his government faces.
His first foray into international summits will inevitably be perceived by some as simply an attempt to correct the course of Trump’s agenda. The new president, however, made it clear that his domestic and foreign policy agenda will not just be the erasure of the Trump years.
“I’m tired of talking about Donald Trump,” lamented Biden earlier this week at CNN’s Milwaukee City Hall.
Biden in the election campaign promised to reaffirm U.S. leadership in the international community, a role that Trump often avoided while complaining that the U.S. was often taken advantage of by rented allies.
To that end, the White House said Biden would be encouraging G-7 partners to keep their promises to COVAX, an initiative by the World Health Organization to improve access to vaccines, even when he reopens the U.S. tap.
Trump withdrew the U.S. from 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 beginning of the public health crisis that undid a strong American economy.
It remains to be seen how the G-7 allies will accept Biden’s calls for greater international cooperation in the distribution of vaccines, as the United States has refused to participate in the Trump initiative and there are growing calls for the Democratic government to distribute some manufactured products. In the USA. vaccines abroad.
French President Emmanuel Macron asked the United States and European nations to allocate up to 5% of current vaccine supplies to developing countries – the kind of vaccine diplomacy that China and Russia have started to implement.
And earlier this week, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres sharply criticized the “extremely uneven and unfair” distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, noting that 10 countries administered 75% of all vaccines.
Biden, who announced last week that the United States will have a sufficient supply of the vaccine by the end of July to inoculate 300 million people, remains focused on ensuring that all Americans are vaccinated, government officials said.
The allies will also listen carefully to what Biden has to say about an impending crisis with Iran.
Iran informed the International Atomic Energy Agency this week that it would suspend voluntary implementation next week of a clause in the 2015 agreement that allowed UN nuclear monitors to conduct inspections of undeclared sites in Iran in the short term, unless the US revoke sanctions by 23 February. .
Secretary of State Antony Blinken told his colleagues in France, Germany and the United Kingdom on Thursday that the United States is prepared to start discussions with Iran in an attempt to reach an agreement on the return to full compliance with the agreement 2015 nuclear power, according to a joint statement from the three nations.
Trump withdrew the United States from the pact negotiated by the Obama administration and renewed sanctions against Tehran, a move that Biden, as a candidate, said was short-sighted and dangerous.
But the joint statement by Blinken and other ministers made it clear that the Biden government continues to hope that Iran will return to full compliance with the 2015 agreement before the United States commits itself again. He also urged Iran to “consider the consequences of such serious action, particularly at this time of renewed diplomatic opportunity”.