The first thing Biden wants to do – VG

Since 2000, America’s foreign policy has become highly unpredictable. Every four to eight years, the course changes abruptly. The first 100 days after his inauguration on January 20, Joe Biden will use to erase many of Trump’s traces.

On the first day of work, Biden will sign the United States to the Paris climate agreement. On the same day, the United States will once again become a member of the World Health Organization (WHO). In protest, Trump removed the United States from both. Biden wants to save the nuclear deal with Iran, which Trump also abandoned. It is not done in a jiffy. After the US withdrawal, Iran has also reneged on the promises in the agreement. Iran must meet its obligations for the international agreement to survive.

The first thing Biden wants to do is strengthen ties with Western democratic countries. The relationship became strained under Trump, who never let an opportunity pass without criticizing them for spending too little money on defense or financially exploiting the United States. Biden wants to strengthen his unity with Western countries to be stronger in competition with China.

Trump removed the United States from international agreements and organizations. He is critical of multilateral cooperation and prefers bilateral agreements in which the United States is the strongest party. Biden has a completely different vision of international cooperation. The United States stands stronger with its allies. It will quickly show that America is back in the driver’s seat of the Western alliance.

There is a cross-party agreement in Washington, DC to lead a hard line against China. The Asian superpower is America’s biggest economic rival. China also poses a growing political and military challenge to the United States and its allies. Biden believes he can accomplish more by playing on teams with allies, rather than continuing Trump’s solo career. But the new president will certainly keep some of the sanctions imposed by the previous administration.

For four years, Trump has been extremely careful in criticizing Russian President Vladimir Putin. When Russia has been accused by US intelligence services of extensive hacking and misinformation, Trump has generally diverted attention and targeted other possible suspects.

But the east-west relationship is freezing at the beginning of the year, and there is no prospect of a thaw climate with Biden in the White House. Biden will point out the Kremlin’s human rights violations against its own citizens and Russian interference in other countries much more clearly than Trump.

The first thing Biden has to decide in relation to Russia is the new START deal. This is the last remaining major agreement between Russia and the United States limiting nuclear arsenals. The new START, which was ratified in 2010, builds on previous arms control agreements. It expires on February 5, just a few weeks after Biden assumes the presidency.

If both the presidents of the United States and Russia support it, New START can be extended for up to five years. The Trump administration has negotiated with the Kremlin, without success so far. Both parties should now accept an extension. Without this agreement, there will no longer be restrictions on how many nuclear weapons the two countries can have. It opens up to an uncontrolled race.

The NATO countries’ goal of increasing defense budgets to two percent of gross domestic product was adopted in the Obama era. Biden, like Trump, will pressure the Allies to deliver on their promise. But Biden also wants to strengthen the political dimension of NATO, because Western unity is based on more than military force.

Trump has persuaded several Arab countries to normalize relations with Israel by offering various countermeasures. Biden is likely to continue this policy. Nor will it reverse Trump’s decision to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Biden is likely to reopen a diplomatic post in Jerusalem to contact the Palestinian Authority. After the Israeli elections in March, an attempt can be made to resume negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

In environmental and climate policy, the difference between the outgoing and incoming president is particularly great. Joe Biden appointed former Secretary of State John Kerry to lead US efforts toward global warming. Kerry played a key role in the negotiations that led to the Paris Agreement. Biden wants to organize a new climate summit, with the participation of the countries with the highest CO2 emissions. Only China emits more greenhouse gases than the United States.

Biden will mark a turnaround in foreign policy, but much of his attention will initially be on major challenges at home. The first and most important task is to fight the pandemic. Even though vaccination has begun, the United States may face some very difficult months before it wears off. Another gigantic task is to recover the American economy after the pandemic.

The challenge in 2020 is even greater than that faced by Barack Obama and Joe Biden when they inherited the financial crisis in 2008.