Russia, where we can expect a big change between Trump and Biden
Of all of Donald Trump‘s boneheaded and dangerous moves, some of the worst involved America’s place in the world. Specifically, Trump cozied up to our adversaries such as Russia, he withdrew from crucial international agreements such as the Paris Agreement on climate change and the Iran Nuclear Agreement, and he alienated our longtime allies such as our fellow NATO nations. Now, President Joe Biden and the Democrats who control both houses of Congress have begun the difficult work of repairing America’s tarnished image and restoring some safety to the world.
Russia
Trump’s cozying up to Russia has been a disturbing trend going back to Trump’s first presidential campaign, or even earlier. Russia was caught interfering in the 2016 U.S. presidential election on behalf of Trump, an act that was termed “cyber warfare.” No action was taken against Russia for four years, so not surprisingly, Russia continued to wage warfare on the U.S., and tried to help Trump again in the 2020 elections. Thankfully, President Biden (who, as Vice President, helped the Obama administration impose sanctions on Russia in 2014 over its invasion of Crimea) is taking a very different tack towards Russia. For starters, Biden plans to join our European allies in imposing new sanctions on Russia for its poisoning and jailing of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
Climate Change
On his first day in office, President Biden signed the documents for the U.S. to rejoin the 2016 Paris Agreement on climate change, which almost all countries in the world (including the U.S., until Trump removed us) had signed. Our re-entry became effective last week.
Iran
In 2015, President Barack Obama and Iran signed the agreement that required Iran to dismantle its nuclear program and open its facilities to inspection. Unfortunately, Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from this agreement in 2016. Not surprisingly, Iran then reportedly resumed some of its nuclear activities, which directly threaten its Middle East neighbors, as well as world stability and, ultimately, the safety of Americans. Now, however, Democratic U.S. Senator Ed Markey and at least 10 of his Democratic Senate colleagues support President Biden’s efforts to re-implement this nuclear agreement with Iran.
We can expect President Biden similarly to adjust America’s relationship with other world leaders who have less than stellar records towards the U.S., on human rights, or both. For example, Biden reportedly is “recalibrating” our relationship with Saudi Arabia, after actions such as Saudi Arabia’s airstrikes in Yemen that killed many civilians, and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman‘s implication in the murder of Washington Post journalist (and U.S. resident) Jamal Khashoggi. This will likely be a big change from Trump, who not only was an apologist for Saudi Arabia, he also invited the Taliban to Camp David, and offered North Korea‘s murderous dictator, Kim Jong Un, a ride home from Vietnam on Air Force One.
As the world community welcomes us back, we should thank them for realizing that Donald Trump was merely an aberration, although unfortunately a very dangerous one.
Photo by Simon Lee, used under Creative Commons license. https://is.gd/tIhs7y
