2 hours agoBiden signals America's return to world arena
Periskopi(5 years ago)
(5 years ago)The president of the United States, Joe Biden, delivered his first speech at the State Department on Thursday since taking office, emphasising on the main challenges for American diplomacy, return to alliances and leadership “from a position of force” in the global arena, reports the Associated Press. President Biden of [...]
The president of the United States, Joe Biden, delivered his first speech at the State Department on Thursday since taking office, emphasising on the main challenges for American diplomacy, return to alliances and leadership “from a position of force” in the global arena, reports the Associated Press.
President Biden made it clear that the world must expect the United States to be more engaged in the diplomatic arena with his administration.
America has returned. Diplomacy is back in the center of our foreign policy”, Biden said.
He spoke concretely about issues leading his foreign policy programme: the coup in Myanmar, talks with Russia and relations with China.
The Myanmar Army must give up the power it has taken down to”, Biden said.
The “Days when the United States stood passive in the face of Russia's aggressive actions, including intervention in our elections, cyber attacks and poisoning of its citizens, have ended,” said President Biden.
He also said that the United States will cope with China's economic abuses by “renewing our role in international institutions and bringing back our credibility and moral authority, a good part of which had been lost. ”
President Biden also said Thursday that he has requested from the Pentagon in co-operation with the State Department a re-evaluation of the deployment of American troops abroad, and that as this analysis takes place, it would stop the withdrawal of American troops from Germany.
This decision was a turning point from former President Trump last year, which despite the opposition of Congress, announced plans to re-displace some 9,500 of the nearly 34,500 American troops stationed in Germany, where Ramstein Air Base and the US Command headquarters for Europe and Africa are located.
Beden also said he would end support for Saudi Arabia's military offensive in Yemen and that he would make support for the rights of the LGBTQ community a cornerstone of diplomacy.
The president announced that he was signing an executive order to increase the border of the number of refugees allowed in the United States more than eight times the level in which the administration of former President Trump had lowered it.
Trump had drastically lowered this border to only 15,000.
Mr. Biden's plan would raise him to 125,000 more than the maximum President Barack Obama had decided before leaving office.
Mr. Biden's speech was a signal to the world that America has returned after four years of former President Trump “American of Pre” policy.
The moment President Biden chose to speak at the State Department, at the beginning of the mandate, was as symbolic as a signal of his interest in foreign policy, including years as head of the Senate's Commission on Foreign Relations.
Former President Trump had visited the State Department for the first time, after more than a year in office, doing so only for Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's oath in 2018, and repeatedly attacked diplomacy as part of a hidden “state” intended to sabotage his administration. Mr. Trump denigrated and fired State Department employees and tried without trying to lower his budget by up to 35%.
The visit to the State Department comes after Mr. Biden made the decision Wednesday to extend the deadline of the last remaining treaty to power with Russia, limiting Russian and American nuclear weapons reserves, just two days before the pact's expiration.
