WASHINGTON (AP) – Joe Biden makes his first world appearance as president on Friday, giving the group of seven allies and other foreign leaders a look at his plans to dramatically reshape US foreign policy even as he tackles a series of crises approaching the head.
Ahead of Biden’s virtual appearances at a G-7 meeting and the Munich Security Conference, the White House tried to stress that the new administration will move quickly to reorient the US away from Donald Trump’s “America First” mantra, announcing major reversals of Trump. management policies.
Biden was expected to use his speech at the Munich conference to stress that the United States is ready to join talks on the reinstatement of Iran’s 2015 multilateral nuclear deal. abandoned by the Trump administration. The Biden administration announced on Thursday its desire to re-engage Iran and has taken steps at the United Nations to restore policy to what it was before President Donald Trump withdrew from the agreement in 2018.
Biden was also expected to address 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 eliminate the remaining 2,500 U.S. troops in under a peace agreement negotiated with the Trump administration. Taliban.
“Our partnerships have endured and grown over the years because they are rooted in the richness of our common democratic values,” Biden said, according to excerpts from remarks prepared at the Munich Conference published by the White House. “They are not transactional. They are not extractive. They are built on a vision of the future in which every voice matters. ”
His message was to be surrounded by an underlying argument that democracies – not autocracies – are models of governance that can best meet the challenges of the moment, according to a senior administration official who previewed the president’s speech to reporters.
“We are in the middle of a fundamental debate about the future direction of our world,” Biden said. “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 coping with those challenges. “
At the G-7, administration officials said, Biden was focusing on what is expected of the international community as it tries to extinguish public health and the economic crises created by the coronavirus pandemic.. White House officials say Biden will announce at the G-7 that the United States will soon begin releasing $ 4 billion for an international effort to strengthen the purchase and distribution of coronavirus vaccine to poor countries, a program Trump has refused to support. .
Both the G-7 and the annual security conference are practically due to the pandemic.
Biden’s turn on the world stage comes when the United States, on Friday, officially joins the Paris climate agreement, the largest international effort to reduce global warming. Trump announced in June 2017 that he was removing the United States from the reference agreement, claiming that it would undermine the American economy.
Biden announced the US intention to join the agreement on the first day of his presidency, but had to wait 30 days for the move to take effect. He said he would consider climate change issues in every major domestic and foreign policy decision facing his administration.
His first foray into international summits will inevitably be perceived by some as a mere attempt to correct the course of Trump’s agenda. However, the new president specified that his domestic and foreign policy agenda will not be just a deletion of the Trump years.
“I’m tired of talking about Donald Trump,” Biden lamented earlier this week at a CNN town hall in Milwaukee.
Following the campaign, Biden promised to reaffirm US leadership in the international community, a role Trump has often evaded, while complaining that the US has been too often taken advantage of by freelading allies.
To that end, the White House said Biden will encourage G-7 partners to live up to their commitments to COVAX, a World Health Organization initiative to improve access to vaccines, even as it reopens the top of the United States.
Trump withdrew the United States from the 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 treating the virus at the beginning of the public health crisis that revealed a strong US economy.
It remains to be seen how the G-7 allies will accept Biden’s demands for greater international cooperation on vaccine distribution, given that the United States has refused to participate in the Trump-led initiative and that there are growing calls for the Democratic administration. to distribute some made in the USA. supply of vaccine abroad.
French President Emmanuel Macron has called on the US and European nations to allocate up to 5% of the current vaccine supply to developing countries – the kind of vaccine diplomacy that China and Russia have begun to conduct.
Earlier this week, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres sharply criticized the “extremely uneven and unfair” distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, saying 10 countries had given 75% of all vaccinations.
Biden, who announced last week that the United States will provide enough vaccine by the end of July to inoculate 300 million people, remains focused for the time being on making sure every American is vaccinated, administration officials say.
The Allies will also listen carefully to hear what Biden has to say about an approaching crisis with Iran.
Iran informed the International Atomic Energy Agency this week that it will suspend the voluntary implementation next week of a provision in the 2015 agreement that allows UN nuclear monitors to conduct inspections of undeclared sites in Iran shortly, unless the US cancels them. sanctions until February 23. .
Secretary of State Antony Blinken told his counterparts in France, Germany and Britain on Thursday that the United States is ready to engage in talks with Iran in an attempt to reach an agreement on returning to full compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal, according to an agreement joint statement of the three nations.
Trump withdrew the United States from the pact negotiated by the Obama administration and renewed sanctions against Tehran, a step that Biden, as a candidate, said was short-sighted and dangerous.
But the joint statement by Blinken and the other ministers clarified that the Biden administration continues to expect Iran to return to full compliance with the 2015 agreement before the US commits itself again. He also urged Iran to “consider the consequences of such serious action, especially at this time of renewed diplomatic opportunities.”