Elections in the United States: Donald Trump intends to fit Joe Biden in foreign policy

On its way out, the Trump administration is enacting new rules, regulations, and orders that it hopes will fit the administration of President-elect Joe Biden on numerous foreign policy issues and cement President Donald Trump’s “America First” legacy in international affairs.

However, the momentum may not work, as many of these decisions may be withdrawn or significantly amended by the incoming president when he takes office on January 20.

In recent weeks, the White House, the State Department and other agencies have been working overtime to produce new political pronouncements on Iran, Israel, China and elsewhere that aim to set Trump’s vision for the world.

Some have attracted significant attention, while others have gone largely unnoticed. And while Biden could reverse many of them with a stroke of the pen, some will demand his administration’s time and attention when he comes to power with a host of other priorities that perhaps need more urgent attention.

The most recent of these movements took place last week when Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made what could be his last visit to Israel as Secretary of State and delivered two announcements in support of Israel’s claims on the territory claimed by the Palestinians. .

Biden’s team has been silent on these announcements, but Biden has made it clear that he supports few, if any, of them and will reverse many as he intends to revert to a more traditional policy towards Israel and the Palestinians.

The Trump administration’s determined efforts to thwart possible Biden policy changes actually began months earlier, half a world away from the Jewish state, with China, even before the former vice president was formally declared the Democratic Party presidential candidate.

When opinion polls began to show Biden as a clear favorite to beat Trump in November, the administration began to move even as the president maintained a public face of defiance and utter confidence in his re-election.

Some officials point to a July 13 statement by Pompeo that the United States would now reject virtually all of China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea, a 180-degree change from the positions of previous administrations that all such claims should. be handled by arbitration.

While many of Trump’s foreign policy decisions early on have been designed to blow up the foreign policy achievements of the previous administration (withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal, the Paris Climate Agreement, and the Trans-Pacific Partnership on trade), The South China Sea decision was the first to be linked by administration officials to the possibility that Biden could be the next president.

An administration official said at the time that decisions made after that would be made with a view to Biden becoming president. So the fear that Trump could be a single-term president began to take hold in July and has been followed by an acceleration of pronouncements aimed primarily at thwarting any pushback from Biden.

A look at some of those moves:

ISRAEL: On Thursday, before making an unprecedented trip to an Israeli settlement in the West Bank, Pompeo announced that the United States would henceforth consider groups that advocate for Palestinian rights by supporting the Boycott, Divestment and Movement “anti-Semitic.” Sanctions against Israel.

He also announced a change in import labeling rules that will require products made in the settlements to be identified as “Made in Israel.” Product labeling will take some time to take effect, and so far no group has been affected by the anti-Semitic designation. However, even if they are implemented, Biden could reverse them on day one.

Those moves followed many other Israel-friendly steps the administration has taken since taking office. They include recognizing Jerusalem as the capital, moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv and cutting off aid to the Palestinian Authority and the UN refugee agency that works with the Palestinians.

While Biden is unlikely to move the embassy back to Tel Aviv, the other measures can be quickly reversed.

IRAN: Pompeo and other officials have spoken of a new push to impose sanctions against Iran, but the fact remains that the administration has been increasing those sanctions since Trump withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal two years ago.

The new sanctions could potentially target supporters of Iranian-backed militias in Iraq and Afghanistan alongside the Shiite Houthi movement in Yemen, which has been involved in a disastrous war with the country’s internationally recognized government.

Biden has spoken of wanting to rejoin the nuclear deal, and Iranian officials have said they would be willing to rejoin the deal if he does. Biden could remove many of the sanctions reimposed by the Trump administration by executive order, but it is unclear how high the priority will be for him.

WIDER MIDDLE EAST: While the withdrawal of significant numbers of US forces from Afghanistan and Iraq, which reduced troop levels to 2,500 in each country, is a clear indication of Trump’s intentions, Biden’s approach remains less certain.

The Pentagon could delay or delay withdrawals, and it is unclear how the State Department will handle staffing at its embassies in Baghdad and Kabul, which depend on US military support.

Pompeo has threatened to close the US embassy in Baghdad unless rocket attacks by Iranian-backed militias against the area in which it is located are stopped. However, despite the troop withdrawal determination last week, there has been no announcement on the status of the embassy.

CHINA: Although the administration’s most strident actions against China began more than a year ago, they have gathered momentum since March, when Trump determined that he would immediately blame China for the spread of the new coronavirus and accuse Biden of being soft on Beijing.

Since then, the administration has steadily stepped up sanctions against China on Taiwan, Tibet, trade, Hong Kong and the South China Sea. It has also moved against Chinese telecoms giant Huawei and has sought restrictions on Chinese social media apps like TikTok and WeChat.

Last week, the State Department’s policy planning bureau released a 70-page China’s political strategy document. While it contains few immediate policy recommendations, it advocates for increased support and cooperation with Taiwan.

In fact, when the document was released, US officials were meeting with their Taiwanese counterparts in Washington to discuss economic cooperation.

RUSSIA: Sunday marked the formal withdrawal of the United States from the “Open Skies Treaty” with Russia, which allowed each country overflight rights to inspect military installations.

The withdrawal, six months after the United States notified the Russians of its intention, leaves only one arms control pact still in effect between former Cold War enemies: the New START treaty, which limits the number of nuclear warheads that everyone can have. That treaty will expire in February.

The Trump administration had said it was not interested in extending the New START treaty unless China also joined, something that Beijing has rejected. In recent weeks, however, the administration has softened its stance and said it is willing to consider an extension.

As the transition to the Biden administration approaches, those negotiations remain a work in progress.