Joe Biden, with nearly 50 years of experience in Washington, has vowed to get back to normal.
Washington:
After Donald Trump in his first week as president spoke to the Australian Prime Minister, the leaked appeal left many stunned, with the new US leader haranguing and hanging up on the close ally.
When Joe Biden spoke by phone Thursday with Prime Minister Scott Morrison, the President-elect’s office said Biden hoped to work with him on “many common challenges” and the Australian leader said he would forward a study on the way his country was fighting Covid-19. contact search.
After four years of presidential spades and chronic chaos in relations with foreign leaders, Biden has already signaled a reversal – he’s making American diplomacy predictable, if not dull, again.
Its transitional office – which does not receive the usual assistance from the State Department because Trump refuses to concede the election – publishes the kind of soporific readings that, until the 2016 election, were the primary means of US presidential communication .
With Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, whom Trump ridiculed on Twitter after a summit as “very dishonest and weak,” a statement by Biden after a congratulatory phone call said the couple “reaffirmed the close ties between the United States and Canada “and pledged to cooperate against Covid-19 and future biological threats.
After his conversation with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whom Trump had openly criticized for welcoming migrants, Biden “noted his interest in working closely” to deal with the pandemic, climate change and other issues and “praised his leadership”.
The lack of drama in Biden’s approach comes as no surprise.
Biden, with nearly 50 years of experience in Washington, has vowed to return to normal, bringing back the age-old decision-making process involving expert consultations rather than impulsive tweets.
In a campaign speech on foreign policy, Biden pointed to the sharp decline in US global respect under Trump and vowed to turn the page on “the chest thrusts, self-inflicted setbacks and fabricated crises of this administration”.
Priorities sign
Biden’s return to more traditional diplomacy doesn’t come down to a less brash personal style.
He also signals that he places a higher value on working with the world, said Monica Duffy Toft, professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.
“Trump likes to do things bilaterally and unilaterally. The big difference is that Biden respects and understands that sometimes you have to work multilaterally,” she said.
“I think it will be less personalistic, less chaotic and a lot more by protocol, and obviously not by tweet,” she added.
She expected Biden to rekindle the role of the State Department – ridiculed by the always suspicious Trump as a “deep State Department” – and move away from personal and family relationships.
Autocratic leaders have assiduously sought unfiltered channels to Trump, who bypassed the usual note-takers during his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin and allegedly took phone calls made directly by his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan without no preparation on the part of the assistants.
Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner has been put in charge of the Middle East and is reportedly chatting on WhatsApp with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who can expect much greater pressure from Biden on human rights. man.
“If you were one of those strong countries it was easier. They knew they could somehow get Trump’s ear and get what they wanted,” said Duffy Toft.
“It might be good for this world leader, but it’s very troubling for other world leaders,” Toft said.
Biden is not always the opposite of Trump. Like the tycoon, Biden enjoys talking about how he cultivated relationships with foreign leaders and speaks more the language of pragmatism than grand geopolitical strategy.
But it’s hard to imagine allies limiting access to conversations with Biden for fear of embarrassing leaks, as Germany would have done with Trump’s calls.
As former President Barack Obama said during a Biden administration’s election campaign, “it just won’t be that exhausting.”
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
