U.S. foreign policy commitment to Biden with democracy was called into question

Shortly after becoming president, Joe Biden promised a direction correction in U.S. foreign policy that would “better unite our democratic values ​​with our diplomatic leadership.”

He was part of an effort to draw a line under the Trump era, which degraded Washington’s global role, its support for human rights, and coordination with Democratic allies. When Donald Trump’s “America First” policy included an unprecedented spread to autocratic leaders, Biden indicated that he would restore U.S. moral leadership in defense of democracies around the world.

Biden’s commitment to putting democratic values ​​at the core of US foreign policy has been called into question after the commitment of Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko confiscation of a commercial flight by rule leading an opposition activist.

On Friday afternoon, the United States took action to punish Minsk for blatant action, saying it was joining the EU to develop a broader list of measures against the Lukashenko regime and plan new sanctions.

But critics say the White House’s response to one of the most startling human rights violations of Biden’s tenure was belated and hesitant, which came several days after Brussels’ quick departure, and that the injury was aggravated by agreeing to a high-profile summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“In the Soviet tradition and, of course, in the Russian tradition, a summit with the US president surpasses almost everything else,” said Leon Aron, Russian director of the conservative American Enterprise Institute, arguing that the meeting would give Putin a validation. international as well as their struggles. they have assembled at home.

A senior administration official acknowledged that the White House had been forced to balance its push to reaffirm democratic principles around the world with more pragmatic considerations, meaning that so far Biden’s human rights record “It wasn’t perfect.”

“Of course, sometimes there are trade-offs in terms of national imperative that we work for this administration,” the official told the Financial Times.

But the official disputed claims that Belarus was part of a larger trend to stop promoting democratic principles abroad. In China, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia and elsewhere, the administration has taken positions of principles on human rights, the official insisted.

Especially after Lukashenko’s power play, the Biden-Putin summit will be watched even more closely to find indications that the U.S. president will maintain his commitment to pressuring democratic values.

Andrea Prasow of Human Rights Watch said it would be a “huge disappointment” if Biden did not use the meeting to send a strong message about human rights, especially for renouncing Russia’s violence against Ukraine and for its treatment. to have pro-democracy opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who remains in prison following allegations that Russian intelligence tried to kill him.

Despite these actions and, in addition to allowing Europeans to take the lead in punishing Belarus for the intercepted plane, the Biden administration also waived key sanctions. Nord Stream 2, a Russian gas pipeline project favored by Putin, to avoid angering Germany.

Aron said he accepted one summit with Putin after his violation of human rights at home and abroad was a major political mistake, especially at a time when the Russian president is struggling with falling popularity, low economic growth and national protests over Navalny’s treatment. “For them, a meeting is proof that they are respected and feared,” he said.

The senior administration official said Biden would hold “tough” talks on human rights and democracy with Putin and did not consider the meeting a concession. But the official acknowledged that the event could be held hostage by the Russian “spin”.

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

Efforts to push for a more fundamental approach to Russia have run into the practical reality that Washington needs the Kremlin for various security priorities, including the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, strategic arms control, the reactivation of Iran’s nuclear deal and climate policy.

Andrew Weiss, Russia’s former director of the National Security Council, said previous administrations have had similar limitations. In 2014, the Obama administration tried to cut off high-level contacts with Moscow after Russia invaded Ukraine, but the policy “began to unravel” once the crisis in Syria, in which Russia played a role large-scale in support of President Bashar al-Assad: required a bilateral commitment the following year.

“The Biden administration has decided that it needs a direct line to the Kremlin,” said Weiss, who added that sanctions actions against Belarus risked being ineffective and bringing the regime closer to Moscow.

Rhetorically, Biden has also taken a tougher line than Barack Obama or Trump at the beginning of his presidencies, telling an interviewer that he considered Putin a “murderer,” prompting the return of U.S. and Russian ambassadors. Biden met Putin in 2011 as vice president; he later remembered being told he had no soul.

However, critics argue that Belarus’ response is part of a pattern, which includes Biden’s failure to impose sanctions on Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman following the publication of a northern intelligence assessment. American who approved an operation that led to the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

“Perhaps the most disappointing part of these incidents is the idea that the promotion of human rights is not always in the interest of the United States,” Prasow said, adding that Biden’s failure to curb Israel in its attacks in Gaza this month showed that human rights seemed to have “fallen by the wayside in favor of other so-called perceived interests of the United States.”

Biden took office with a strong track record in promoting human rights and democracy, sometimes fighting with more “realistic” officials in Obama’s White House when he was vice president.

But Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser who also worked in the Obama administration, recently told the FT that Biden always believed U.S. foreign policy was driven by “Enlightened personal interest”, with a “naked” self-interest in the service of the American middle class working alongside the pursuit of greater common interests.