President Joe Biden arrives in Washington on Wednesday afternoon after a whirlwind of summits on two different continents — his biggest chance yet to play chief diplomat among other world leaders in a world emerging from the Covid-19 pandemic.
The trip – to Egypt, Cambodia and Indonesia for summits focused on climate, Southeast Asia and the global economy – came at a difficult time, challenging the president to balance his attention on both ongoing domestic political battles and international issues. that is in front of him.
Biden, for example, would be thousands of miles away from Washington, D.C., as votes continued to be tallied in midterm races across the country. He would be in Indonesia while his 2020 rival and predecessor, former President Donald Trump, announced his third presidential bid in Florida. And through it all, Biden would be trying to thread the needle of diplomacy with allies and adversaries who may not know whether his foreign policy will stick around for the long haul.
But flying out of Asia on Wednesday, the president departed having been able to celebrate some political victories while abroad, smoothing over some of the rougher dynamics he had faced with key leaders without promising any deliverables and testing the strength of of his allies in the event of an emergency called on them to get together and come up with a plan.
Here are excerpts from Biden’s trip:
Biden held three-hour talks on the sidelines of the G20 in Bali on Monday with Chinese President Xi Jinping, their first face-to-face meeting since Biden took office. The meeting was an opportunity to iron out long-standing tensions. Although both leaders left without resolving the litany of issues that helped drive the US-China relationship to its lowest point in decades, they pledged to restore coordination.
Relations have deteriorated rapidly amid economic disputes and an increasingly militarized standoff over Taiwan. The tensions have led to a decline in cooperation in areas where the two countries once shared interests, such as combating climate change and curbing North Korea’s nuclear program.
Emerging from the talks afterward, Biden told reporters that both he and Xi had been “open and honest” about their differences. Crucially, Biden questioned an imminent invasion of self-ruled Taiwan and seemed optimistic that his message of avoiding all-out conflict had been received.
“I’m not suggesting that this is kumbaya,” Biden said at a press conference, “but I don’t think there’s any need to be concerned because one of you raised a reasonable question, a new Cold War.”
“He was clear, and I was clear, that we will defend American interests and values, advance global human rights and defend the international order, and work engaged with our allies and partners,” Biden continued. “We will compete strongly, but I’m not looking for a clash.”
The White House said in a statement after the meeting that Biden expressed concerns about human rights and China’s challenges around Taiwan. But they found at least one area of apparent agreement – that nuclear weapons cannot be used in Ukraine, where that nation is trying to deal with a Russian invasion.
In a sign that both men arrived at the meeting hoping to improve the strained relationship, Biden announced that his Secretary of State Anthony Blinken would visit China and said officials from each country would begin working together on issues. Formal talks on climate cooperation between the US and China are expected to resume as part of a broader set of deals between Biden and Xi, two US officials told CNN.
China previously suspended the talks – seen by the Biden administration as a key area where the two nations need to work together – as part of retaliation for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan. U.S. and Chinese climate change envoys are talking, but the Biden administration will see what China is willing to do to make concrete progress, one of the U.S. officials said.
The White House had been bracing for domestic politics to veer into the trip, given Trump’s expected announcement and the delay in midterm election results. The issue, it seems, was also on the minds of the leaders Biden met with throughout the trip.
Biden cited the political odds working in his favor at the top of Monday’s press conference after Democrats were projected to secure their majority in the US Senate.
“The American people have proven once again that democracy is who we are. There has been a strong rejection of election deniers at every level by those who seek to lead our states and those who seek to serve in Congress and also those who seek to oversee elections,” Biden said.
Speaking about his time in Asia and meeting with world leaders, Biden said the election sent “a very strong message around the world that the United States is ready to play” and “totally committed to the world.”
Throughout his meetings in Asia, Biden was approached by fellow leaders congratulating him after the midterm results, a sign that American political contests were being closely watched by leaders on the opposite side of the world. It was a phenomenon that surprised some of his aides, especially the particularity with which many of the leaders were watching.
White House officials also expected a split screen this week as Biden met with world leaders in Bali at the same time his predecessor was announcing a third presidential bid. But momentum picked up as Biden called the emergency talks over a missile that killed two people in Poland as Trump loyalists packed the Mar-a-Lago ballroom for the former president’s announcement.
Trump’s announcement is sure to put renewed attention on Biden’s decision-making on whether to run for re-election. By all reports, including his closest advisers, Biden will feel more motivated to seek a second term if Trump is in contention.
Biden administration officials had characterized the G20 summit as another effort to rally world leaders to support Ukraine amid Russia’s continued aggression, but the issue took on a new level of urgency when leaders in Indonesia woke up early Wednesday with reports that a missile had landed in Poland. – Ukraine’s neighbor to the west and a NATO ally – and killed two people.
Leaders of NATO and G7 allies at the summit, led by Biden, also held an emergency meeting in Bali to discuss their approach to the blast.
The circumstances surrounding the incident, which marked the first time a NATO country was hit directly during the nearly nine-month conflict, remain unclear.
Biden said after the meeting that preliminary information suggested it was “unlikely” the missile was fired from inside Russia, but he could not say definitively until the investigation was complete. Poland’s president and NATO chief both said Wednesday that it was possible the missile attack was accidentally triggered by Ukrainian air defenses, with no indication that it was a deliberate attack on Poland.
At the G20 – a group of nations, including Russia, focused heavily on the global economy – Russia’s international isolation grew as world leaders issued a joint statement condemning its war in Ukraine.
The summit ended on Wednesday with a statement by the leaders that “deplores the aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine and demands its full and unconditional withdrawal from the territory of Ukraine.”
The 17-page document is a major victory for the US and its allies who pushed for the summit to end with a strong condemnation of Russia, although it also acknowledged disagreements among member states.
“Most members strongly condemned the war in Ukraine and stressed that it is causing enormous human suffering and exacerbating existing weaknesses in the global economy,” it said. “There were other views and different assessments of the situation and the sanctions.”
Passing the joint statement would require buy-in from leaders with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin — notably Xi, who declared friendship “without boundaries” between their countries weeks before the invasion, and India’s prime minister Narendra Modi.
While India appears to have distanced itself from Russia, it is less clear whether there has been any shift in position from China. Xi called for a ceasefire and agreed to oppose the use of nuclear weapons in a series of bilateral meetings with Western leaders on the sidelines of the G20, but gave no public indication of any commitment to persuade Putin to end the war.
