- Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna is one of the most influential foreign policy voices in Congress.
- Khanna talked to Insider about Biden’s foreign policy so far and about the post-Trump US direction.
- Khanna said Biden had a “good start” on the global stage.
- Visit the Business section of the Insider for more stories.
Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California emerged as one of the most prominent and progressive voices in Congress on foreign affairs during the Trump era, a role he is about to play as President Joe Biden tries to restore America’s decadent credibility with allies and challenge opponents encouraged.
Khanna played a crucial role in putting US involvement in the Yemen conflict on Congressional radar, working with Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, and his efforts were already rewarded at the start of the Biden government.
Biden recently announced the end of US support for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, where a devastating war has fueled the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
The California Democrat also spoke openly about Iran. Amid fears that then President Donald Trump was about to start a war with Tehran, Khanna led the charge of blocking Pentagon funding for any military action against Iran without the congressional approval.
Within a month of his presidency, Biden has already taken a drastically different approach to foreign affairs. After four years of threats and unilateral policymaking under Trump, Biden tried to reassure his allies that diplomacy will be the name of the game.
Within hours of his inauguration, Biden decided to rejoin the Paris climate agreement and the World Health Organization. He also ended Trump’s controversial and controversial travel ban, which mainly affected Muslim countries.
That said, Biden still faces great challenges internationally without clear solutions, from the dispute to restore the nuclear deal with Iran to the fight against China’s growing global influence.
And with America’s international position tarnished after the attack on the Capitol in January, Biden’s own secretary of state acknowledged that the U.S. government’s ability to defend democracy has been weakened. Biden’s career was defined in many ways by his involvement in the formulation of foreign policy, but he may find that the old way of doing things just doesn’t work anymore.
Khanna joined Insider for a question and answer session on Biden’s foreign policy so far and post-Trump U.S. policy.
Editor’s Note: This interview was edited for its length and clarity.
INSIDER: As the new government settles in, what are your biggest foreign policy concerns and what is on your wish list?
Khanna: The first thing to focus on is the end of the war in Yemen. The government has taken constructive steps in announcing that we will not be complicit in any bombing or offensive attack by Saudi Arabia on Yemen. But there is more to be done.
We must make it very clear that there should be no interference between any of Yemen’s powers. The civil war in Yemen was going on before the intervention of the Saudis, so the Saudis and the United Arab Emirates need to stop providing any funding. Iran needs to stop providing any funding or interfere there.
The facts on the ground have not changed. The bombing continues. The threat of hunger still exists.
It is a great achievement that we are no longer complicit. But our complicity over the past five years makes us responsible for really trying to achieve peace there, not just for washing her hands. And that is a big part of that.
We need a careful strategy with China that is not limited to following a new Cold War paradigm that fuels anti-Asian xenophobia. We have to be tough on certain economic issues, but we also have to recognize that this will require cooperation in climate change, in pandemics. How we achieve this balance and how we continue to lead in critical technologies – that will be very important.
Q: As a progressive, how satisfied are you with Biden’s approach so far?
Khanna: It’s a good start.
The reversal of many of Trump’s most blatant policies was welcome – going back to the Paris Accords, stopping our complicity in the Yemen war, ensuring that we will not continue to have a Muslim ban, having a review of all sanctions, and that commitment to return to [Iran nuclear deal].
But now we have to see what the next year will be like.
Q: Biden proposed holding a Summit for Democracy, but after the attack on the Capitol and Trump’s acquittal, does the United States have the legitimacy to host it?
Khanna: Yes, we are still an extraordinary liberal democracy.
When you come to the First Amendment protections about speech. When you come to the recognition of equal rights, pluralism. We will be the world’s first large minority majority nation.
Do we have challenges? Absolutely. We have challenges. We had a historic challenge with the original sin of racism. We had a historic challenge with the extermination of Native Americans and exclusions from the Latin community and women.
But all nations face challenges and we have strong liberal and democratic institutions that have stood the test of time and that I believe can help us to become a multiracial democracy.
Q: After Biden’s massive decision to end US support for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, what’s next for the US-Saudi relationship?
Khanna: There must be a cessation of financing to Yemen and the blockade must be lifted. There must be responsibility for the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. They are in a very precarious position. The Hill wants to reexamine the relationship, Biden wants to reexamine the relationship.
Its strategic value is not so high with our relative energy independence, and we are moving towards renewable energy.
There will be a great expectation that they will reform.
Q: The United States was the first to abandon the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran (JCPOA), but the Biden government says Iran must now take the first step by stopping uranium enrichment. What is the risk that the shot will backfire, perhaps spectacularly?
Khanna: My belief is that there were 102 kilos of [enriched] uranium when Trump took office, there is now 2.5 tons of uranium. And if we do nothing, the standard situation will be benefiting Iran.
The maximum pressure campaign did not work and I see no downside to saying, “OK, let’s go back to JCPOA. We will lift sanctions. And then, if Iran cheats, we will snap them back.”
What’s wrong? Whereas, if we continue to play the chicken game, the risk is that Iran will become nuclear in the next few years, instead of by 2030 – which is what the JCPOA was trying to push up to.
Q: Would you support the Biden government in adopting a path in which the United States and Iran return to fulfill the agreement simultaneously?
Khanna: That seems like a reasonable way to go.
Q: Do you think the United States relied heavily on sanctions in an attempt to influence foreign crises, such as the recent Myanmar coup?
Khanna: Sanctions can be an important tool in the United States’ foreign policy toolkit to hold repressive regimes accountable for human rights abuses, except for the use of military force.
They must be designed in a narrow way, however, to target offensive parties instead of harming civilians living in that country, who often support the United States and are not to blame for their regime’s policies. We have repeatedly seen civilians endure the impact of widespread, devastating and indiscriminate economic sanctions.
It is good news that the Biden government is conducting a review of the impacts of American sanctions.
Q: Are you concerned that much of Biden’s initial foreign policy was designed to avoid criticism from the Republican Party, such as not moving faster to return to the JCPOA or not immediately canceling Trump-era tariffs in China?
Khanna: We have to give them at least six months to make any progress.
A new president deserves a chance to succeed. He deserves a chance to implement his policies.
Now, six months from now or a year from now, if things haven’t been moving in a positive direction, then you will have people speaking out.
But there is definitely a feeling among progressives that our new president deserves a chance to succeed and has taken some constructive steps.
Q: The US-Turkey relationship appears to be in serious trouble. How can the US reverse the growing divide?
Khanna: They have always been an important ally. We want to maintain this alliance, but have its foundations in human rights. We cannot abandon the relationship with Turkey. We have nuclear weapons there.
Q: In terms of foreign policy, is there a problem that is not getting the attention it deserves?
Khanna: We have to think about a bigger picture of a multiracial America that we are becoming.
Towards a foreign policy that focuses on human rights and recognizes the dignity and aspirations of people around the world. That moves away from a foreign policy that is based simply on the balance of power, achievement or greed, and moves towards what is, in my view, the true American ideal: a foreign policy that supported freedom, that supported dystrophy tyranny, which was actually on the side of decolonization.