Biden emphasized NATO and other foreign partnerships in his latest foreign policy speech

With a world at war UkraineIn the Middle East and Sudan, President Biden is scheduled to speak about his foreign policy legacy on Monday at the State Department in a speech expected to focus on his administration’s investment in strong global alliances and his attempt to restore America’s leadership role in the world.

When Biden took office four years ago, he sought to reassure global allies and reestablish foreign treaties that the Trump administration had withdrawn from. The president re-established strong ties with NATO leaders in the face of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, and rejoined the Paris climate agreement. But world leaders were preparing for change as the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump approached.

Mr. Biden is expected to argue that US outreach to the world is what will protect American interests – not isolationism.

The president recently told USA Today He helped reset relations that had been strained during the Trump administration, saying he had managed an “inflection point” in history. He credited his long history on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee with helping him “deal with some of the fundamental changes that are happening, whether it’s in Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, or the Far East.”

“The only advantage of being an old man is that I’ve known every major world leader for a long time,” he told Susan Page on USA Today. “So I had a perspective on each of them and their interests.”

in His first foreign policy speech as president in 2021Mr. Biden aimed to connect foreign and domestic policy interests by advocating a middle-class foreign policy. The focus was supposed to be on China and repairing alliances, but it was disrupted by crises in Ukraine and the Middle East.

“The United States is in a worse geopolitical position today than it was four years ago,” says Steven Wertheim, a historian and senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “The United States is embroiled in a full-scale war on the European continent with serious risks of escalation; it has returned to bombing the Middle East with no end in sight; and has entered into a wide-ranging strategic competition with China.”

Ukraine, Russia and NATO

Mr. Biden has been a vocal supporter of Ukraine, became the first president to go to a conflict zone where American forces were not involved, and has directed more than $183 billion in military aid since the Russian invasion in 2021. He played a key role in getting NATO. To spend more on collective defense.

However, the fierce battle continues on the front lines without a clear plan to reach a peace agreement. Washington postponed the matter to Kiev regarding when and how to conduct negotiations under the slogan “Nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine.”

The administration was criticized early in the conflict for holding back on sending deadlier weapons, and was later criticized by some Republicans for spending too much money on aid to Ukraine.

Mr. Biden is expected to argue that his policies ensured that Ukraine remained an independent country and thwarted Putin’s ambitions, a senior administration official told CBS News.

Israel-Hamas war

after Hamas attack on October 7, 2023 Regarding Israel, which killed more than 1,200 civilians, Mr. Biden made it clear that Israel has the right to defend itself by sending his administration military aid worth more than billions of dollars.

While Israel launched a war on Gaza that killed more than 45,000 people, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health, and led to a humanitarian crisis, the administration did not change its position.

In April 2023, Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that future US support for his country depended on Israel protecting civilians and aid workers in Gaza.

“Biden willingly gave up his influence by immediately pledging military support for Israel; then criticizing the Israeli government’s decisions from a self-imposed margin,” Wertheim said.

The State Department notified Congress earlier this month of a plan to transfer $8 billion worth of weapons to Israel. Ceasefire negotiations are still ongoing between Israel and Hamas as pressure mounts to reach an agreement before Trump’s inauguration on January 20.

A chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan

The most glaring foreign policy failure was the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.

Biden had promised to end America’s longest war and assured the Americans that the Afghan army was capable of repelling Taliban control. Instead, the Taliban expanded their territorial control across the country more quickly than the United States expected, seizing Kabul as the Afghan government collapsed. The United States hastily evacuated about 125,000 people, including 6,000 Americans, during its frantic withdrawal, but dozens of Afghans and 13 American service members were evacuated. He was killed in a suicide bombing Outside Hamid Karzai Airport in Kabul as thousands try to flee the country.

American citizens and Afghan allies who supported American forces throughout the war were left behind. Thousands feared Taliban retaliation, and felt abandoned by the US government after promising to take care of them.

Images of Afghans clinging to military aircraft in the hope of escape, and of US military weapons left behind and on display by the Taliban, have become a symbol of the mistakes that led to the evacuation.

In the three years since the Taliban returned to power, Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups have established a presence in the country Afghan women and girls have been deprived of basic freedoms They enjoyed two decades of Western-backed rule following the 2001 US-led invasion.

China

Trump started the trade war with… China and other countries during his first term, imposing tariffs aimed at deterring what he viewed as unfair trade practices and encouraging American consumers and businesses to buy and sell more goods made at home. While the rhetoric changed under Biden, he nonetheless continued the tariff policy. As was the case during the Trump administration, both viewed China as a security threat, not just an economic one.

The Biden administration has put safeguards in place to help protect industries like chip production from dependence on China. Global alliances such as the Quad – the US, India, Japan, and Australia – and the OCOs – Australia, the US, and the UK – have made diplomatic and military progress in deterrence against China. The Biden administration has done so as well Strengthening its military alliance With Japan.

Mr. Biden was Vice President when former President Barack Obama delivered his “Pivot to Asia” speech. American policymakers have been trying to shift the focus of foreign policy ever since, but there have been a world of distractions along the way.

“The United States cannot expect to prioritize China while remaining the leading military power in Europe and the Middle East,” Wertheim said. “If the United States really wants to prioritize China, it must retreat elsewhere.”

Olivia Gazis and

Ahmed Mukhtar

She contributed to this report.