Biden’s commitment to US foreign policy to democracy was questioned

Shortly after becoming president, Joe Biden promised to lead a course in U.S. foreign policy that “would better reconcile our democratic values ​​with our diplomatic leadership.”

It was part of an effort to draw a line in Trump’s time, which diminished Washington’s global mission, support for human rights, and coordination with democratic allies. When Donald Trump’s “America First” policy was extended to unprecedented autocratic leaderships, Biden stated that he would re-establish moral leadership in the U.S. in defense of democracies around the world.

Biden’s commitment to putting democratic values ​​at the heart of US foreign policy has been questioned after Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko normal hijacking of a commercial flight he carries an opposition activist.

On Friday night, the U.S. took action to punish Minsk, saying it was joining the EU in developing a broader list of measures against the Lukashenko regime and planning new sanctions of its own.

Critics say the response to one of the White House’s most egregious human rights violations under Biden was belated and dubious – it came quickly from Brussels and came a few days later – and the injury escalated by agreeing a summit with the Russian president. Vladimir Putin.

“In the Soviet tradition and of course in the Russian tradition, the summit with the US president surpasses anything else,” said Russian conservative American Business Institute director Leon Aron, arguing that the meeting would give Putin international validity, as would his struggles. they have assembled it at home.

A senior administration official acknowledged that the White House should be compelled by more pragmatic impulses to ratify democratic principles around the world, namely that Biden’s human rights record so far is “not perfect”.

“Of course, sometimes there is compensation for the national imperative we work for this administration,” the official told the Financial Times.

But officials questioned whether Belarus was part of a greater tendency to back down from promoting democratic principles abroad. In China, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia and elsewhere, the administration has adopted human rights principles, the official stressed.

Especially after Lukashenko’s power game, Biden-Putin’s summit will be seen even more closely in search of signs that the U.S. president will maintain his commitment to press for democratic values.

Andrea Prasow of Human Rights Watch said it would be “a great disappointment” if Biden did not use the meeting to send a strong message on human rights, especially given Russia’s sword about Ukraine and Alexei Navalny’s treatment of pro-democracy leader. , remains in prison after allegations by Russian intelligence that he tried to kill him.

Despite these actions, and in addition to allowing leadership to punish Belarus for aircraft seized by Europeans, the Biden administration also refused to impose substantial sanctions. Nord Stream 2, The Russian gas pipeline project promoted by Putin to prevent anger in Germany.

Aron said he agreed to one summit with Putin the frustration of human rights at home and abroad was a major political mistake, especially at a time when Russian President Navalny’s reputation for treatment, low economic growth and struggling with domestic protests. “A meeting for them is proof that they are friendly and fearful,” he said.

The administration’s top official said Biden would hold “tough” talks on human rights and democracy with Putin and did not see the meeting as a concession. But the official acknowledged that the incident could have been hijacked by the Russian “spin”.

“Of course, he will use it for what he can get out of the home validation,” the official said about Putin.

Efforts to push for a more principled approach to Russia have put into practice the reality that Washington needs the Kremlin for security priorities, including withdrawing U.S. troops from Afghanistan, strategic arms control, Iran’s nuclear deal and reviving climate policy.

Former Russian director of the National Security Council Andrew Weiss said previous administrations had had similar limitations. In 2014, the Obama administration tried to disrupt high-level relations with Moscow since Russia invaded Ukraine, but when the Syrian crisis began, politics “began to fall.” Russia continued to play a major role in favor of the president. Bashar al-Assad – he needed a bilateral commitment next year.

“The Biden administration has decided that it needs a straight line to go to the Kremlin,” Weiss said, adding that criminal action against Belarus will have no effect and bring the regime closer to Moscow.

Rhetorically, Biden has taken a tougher line than Barack Obama or Trump did in their early presidency, telling the interviewer that he saw Putin as a “killer,” which led to the return of the U.S. and Russian ambassadors. Biden met Putin as vice president in 2011; he remembered later that he had told her no soul.

However, critics say Belarus’s response is part of a model, including the failure to impose sanctions on Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman after Biden approved the US intelligence assessment that led to the operation that led to the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

“Perhaps the most depressing part of these events is that the promotion of human rights is not always an idea in the US interest,” Prasow said, adding that Biden’s failure to demonstrate Israel’s month-long defeat in Gaza showed human rights. for some ”.

Biden took a strong track record in promoting human rights and democracy, sometimes clashing with more “realistic” officials in the Obama White House.

But Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser who also worked in the Obama administration, recently told FT that Biden has always been on U.S. foreign policy. “Enlightened Personal Interest”, Working in conjunction with the search for greater common “naked” interests in the service of the American middle class.