On Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024, President Joe Biden makes his way out of the presidential limousine at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland to board Air Force One.
By MICHAEL D. SHEAR and ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS
President Joe Biden’s journey to Peru and Brazil, which commenced on Thursday, was intended to serve as his final opportunity to convey to global leaders that he was vindicated — former President Donald Trump was merely a fleeting deviation whose “America First” policies had been rejected by the electorate.
Instead, the president will need to confront the reality that Trump, now the president-elect, is making a return. Biden’s faith in international institutions and collaborations will soon give way once more to Trump’s contempt for allies, inclination towards isolationism, and affinity for authoritarian governments.
The two summits this week in Lima and Rio de Janeiro will not provide the reaffirmation of a foreign policy legacy that Biden had sought, built over a lengthy career in Congress and the White House. Instead, these meetings will serve as a kind of farewell to an era that dominated American foreign policy throughout the majority of the president’s lifetime.
“He’s not in a position to provide reassurance about U.S. foreign policy after Jan. 20, so it’s not his to envision or guarantee,” stated Richard Haass, the former president of the Council on Foreign Relations. Haass noted that the trip represents “a bridge between two starkly different perspectives on America’s role in the world.”
Ricardo Zúñiga, a former deputy assistant secretary at the State Department and past U.S. consul general in São Paulo, was candid regarding how foreign leaders might perceive Biden and the fate of his agenda upon seeing him at the summits.
“A lame duck is a lame duck,” Zúñiga remarked. “And they are aware of it.”
President Biden’s aides express his determination to pursue his agenda until his final moments in office. In Peru, they indicated he would emphasize his administration’s initiatives in the Asia-Pacific region, particularly regarding Chinese aggression. Later, he plans to address the urgency of combating climate change, becoming the first sitting U.S. president to visit the Amazon rainforest. Then in Rio, Biden will seize his last global opportunity to advocate for Ukraine and promote the alliances he has supported during his presidency.
Jake Sullivan, the president’s national security adviser, mentioned that Biden would reassure anxious world leaders of his confidence in the resilience of the partnerships between their nations and the United States.
“He believes that America’s allies are essential to America’s national security. They enhance our strength. They amplify our capabilities,” Sullivan informed reporters on Wednesday. “That’s what he’s going to pass on to President Trump.”
One of the most noteworthy events during Biden’s weeklong international journey is anticipated to be a direct meeting with China’s President Xi Jinping. This will mark the second encounter between the two leaders within a year, occurring against a backdrop of diminishing tensions that had escalated earlier in Biden’s administration.
Aides asserted that Biden would persist in his policy of striving to prevent legitimate, albeit strained, competition with China from spiraling into conflict or confrontation. During a meeting with Trump at the White House on Wednesday, Biden urged his impending successor to maintain open lines of communication among officials across various governmental levels.
Nonetheless, the meeting with Xi, planned for Saturday, occurs as Trump gets ready to assume office once more, vowing a significantly more aggressive stance towards China that entails imposing extensive tariffs on Chinese products entering the American market.
Biden aims to make it clear to Xi the importance of upholding what Sullivan referred to as “stability, clarity, predictability” during the transition to the Trump administration. Sullivan characterized the American political transitions every four years as “uniquely consequential moments in geopolitics” that can occasionally lead foreign adversaries to attempt to exploit the change in leadership.
Yet, similar to other matters on Biden’s agenda for his overseas trip, the meeting with Xi may merely highlight that the countdown on the president’s foreign policy strategy is rapidly nearing conclusion.
In Peru, Biden is expected to address migration, which has been a contentious issue at the southern U.S. border throughout his administration. His long-term plans for collaboration with nations across the Southern Hemisphere will likely be swiftly undone by Trump, whose perspective on the issue differs greatly.
The same could apply when Biden visits the Amazon rainforest for a brief three-hour stop aimed at showcasing his dedication to environmental issues and the fight against climate change. Aides did not disclose any specific announcements that the president might make during his time there.
However, even if Biden were to announce new environmental commitments, Trump has pledged to pursue contrary policies once he takes office. He has vowed to “drill, drill, drill” for oil and gas, while also indicating he will withdraw the United States from the Paris climate accords, a global initiative to curb carbon emissions and avert global warming.
“There will be inquiries regarding the commitment to the United States in the international community, and he must honestly articulate his views,” Zúñiga stated.
Such questions will also arise in Rio, where Biden is set to discuss Ukraine’s need for military assistance in its struggle against Russia’s invasion. Trump and many of his Republican colleagues on Capitol Hill have made their impatience with the billions of dollars in financial aid sent to Ukraine over the past two years abundantly clear.
Biden is expected to attempt to reassure the other leaders that the United States will find a means to continue supporting Ukraine, even with Trump taking charge next year.
