WASHINGTON (AP) – In less than two weeks in office, President Joe Biden faces two critical tests to say whether the deadly US Chapter revolt has affected America’s status as a beacon for democracy.
Protests in Russia and a military coup in Myanmar come as American credibility on the world stage fell after last month’s assault on the Capitol by a pro-Donald Trump mob trying to stop Biden’s election victory certification.
This adds to Biden’s weight as he tries to deliver on his campaign promise to dramatically reposition the United States as a global leader after four years of Trump’s foreign policy led by an “America First” mantra. This policy has been marked by the frequent disregard of democratic allies and the occasional embrace of authoritarian leaders.
Biden’s chief diplomat, Antony Blinken, acknowledged the difficulty.
“I think there is no doubt that the attack on our own democracy on January 6 creates an even greater challenge for us to carry the flag of democracy and freedom and human rights around the world, because certainly people in other countries say to us , ‘Well, why don’t you look at yourself first?’ “The secretary of state said in an interview with NBC News.
Blinken added: “However, the difference between us and so many other countries is that when we are challenged, including when we challenge ourselves – we do it in broad daylight with full transparency.”
Biden, in the early days of his presidency, tried to send the message through a series of calls to foreign leaders that America had returned.
He reassured Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga that the US has its support in an ongoing territorial dispute with China over the islands in the East China Sea. He sought to re-establish relations with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who was downplayed by Trump as “dishonest and weak.” And he told Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador that the United States will send $ 4 billion to help development in Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala – nations whose difficulties have generated waves of migration through Mexico to the United States.
“The United States remains a country in the world wanted for leadership,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters. “It will take some time, but he has certainly committed to do so.”
But the crises in Myanmar and Russia give Biden difficult evidence of his promise to restore global leadership, which is probably far more complicated than repairing fences with traditional allies.
Biden threatened to impose new sanctions on Myanmar on Monday after a coup that saw the army arrest the civilian leaders of his government, calling the episode “a direct attack on the country’s transition to democracy and the rule of law.”
In his first call with Russian President Vladimir Putin As a counterpart last week, Biden expressed concern over the detention of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and the crackdown on supporters of his arrest. The mass arrests accelerated only in the days since the two leaders spoke, as protests continued across the country.
“For Putin, he looks at the Chapter revolt and sees it as more evidence of his worldview, a continuation of the degradation of liberalism in the world,” said Michael McFaul, who served as US ambassador to Russia in the Obama administration. “The Biden election does not mean much to him about his theory of liberal democracy. While Putin’s opponents are very encouraged by the election of President Biden, because they show that American democratic institutions have been resilient. ”
To that end, Navalny’s supporters wrote to Biden over the weekend urging him to take significant action with sanctions against members of Putin’s inner circle to show that he is serious about claiming the US role as a champion of democracy. .
“Their argument is: if you sanction only a bunch of unnamed, low-level colonies … that’s exactly what Putin expects,” McFaul said. “They want the Biden administration to sanction economic actors in the Putin regime, and they have made it easy for the Biden administration, because they have named them all in their seven-page letter.”
Representative Adam Schiff, a California Democrat and chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, drew a line from Trump to the coup in Myanmar. Trump has made unfounded allegations of widespread electoral fraud, which have been rejected by several courts, as well as by Trump’s Justice Department.
An ad read on Myawaddy TV, owned by Myanmar, explained that the seizure was necessary because the government did not act on unfounded allegations by the army of fraud in the last elections in the Southeast Asian country and because it allowed the elections to take place. continue ahead, despite the coronavirus pandemic.
“When America speaks and acts, the world watches and when our leaders propagate conspiracy theories and undermine democracy here at home, they are a dangerous example to the rest of the world,” Schiff said.
Opponents such as China, Iran and Venezuela have pointed to the Chapter’s revolt as proof of the fragility of US democracy. Even some allies said the scene was unsettling and led them to reconsider the United States’ position as a self-proclaimed beacon of democracy.
“After something like this, I think it would be very difficult for the world to see the United States as a symbol of democracy,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelinskiy said in an interview with “Axios on HBO.”
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Associated Press writer Darlene Superville contributed to the report.