In making his first agency trip from the Cabinet to the State Department rather than the Pentagon or the CIA, Biden intends to emphasize his government’s renewed focus on repairing American alliances and using diplomacy as a tool abroad, an official said.
Vice President Kamala Harris will accompany Biden on the visit.
Biden is not expected to offer concrete political direction in his speech to America’s oldest Cabinet agency, which will focus on the theme of “restoring America’s place in the world”, one of its central campaign promises.
However, he must announce his intention to increase the number of refugees allowed to be admitted to the United States after years of historic casualties under the Trump administration, two sources familiar with the plans told CNN, fulfilling a campaign promise.
The content and symbolism of its appearance are intended to convey unmistakable signs: that this administration values diplomacy and its diplomats, will focus its foreign policy on cooperation with allies and will work to restore its reputation as a country that leads by example.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Wednesday that Biden’s visit, which was rescheduled earlier this week due to the weather, “is largely focused on his desire to thank the men and women who are officers of the foreign service, civil servants, who are the heart and soul of this institution and, frankly, our government. “
“Many of them have had challenging years,” she added.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken, a longtime Biden associate and veteran of the department, sought to begin his term by emphasizing the importance of the State Department’s career workforce, whose experience was often overlooked and viewed with suspicion by a president who called the “State Department of the Depths” agency.
Donald Trump visited the department only once in his four years in office for a ceremonial event. He repeatedly and publicly disparaged one of his most respected diplomats, Marie Yovanovitch, during his first impeachment. Her secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, has failed to defend her publicly or strongly, deepening Foggy Bottom’s morale decline.
Psaki, who was a spokesman for the State Department during the Obama administration, said Biden “will speak widely about foreign policy”.
“How could he not, if he is there? That will not be an outline of his vision for every issue and every foreign policy issue. He will have a lot of time to do that,” she said.
Both the president, his top diplomat and his top officials have repeatedly emphasized that the most daunting challenges the United States faces – from the existential threat of climate change to the transnational threat of cyber attacks and peer competition from an increasingly aggressive China – require allies to work together.
The government is now undertaking a series of reviews of foreign policy challenges while determining its own policy. However, Biden indicated that he will seek to frame his foreign policy around strengthening alliances and returning to multilateralism after the Trump era of “First America”.
Biden has spoken by phone to more than half a dozen foreign counterparts since taking office, while Blinken has been working intensively on the phones to make contact with his counterparts around the world.
A source close to both said they are aware that there is serious repair work to be done after four years of Trump’s administration that left allies cautious and hurt – and uncertain how reliable an ally the US will be in the future. .
“There is a real sense among the allies: ‘How long can we count on them?'” Said this source. “We have to resolve this.”
Kevin Liptak, Jason Hoffman and CNN’s Priscilla Alvarez contributed to this report.