Despite the destructive signals against Moscow, US President Joe Biden, in a meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, is looking for a way to establish relative stability in relations between the two countries.
Democrat President Joe Biden chanted ambitious slogans for a change in US foreign policy during his campaign, which, apparently just a few months after he took office, apparently followed in Trump’s footsteps and is rapidly backing down from its election promises.
For example, he promised at the beginning of his tenure that he would make every effort to extend the START treaty with Moscow and reduce tensions between the United States and Russia through negotiations. But only a short time later, Biden’s approach to Russia became so fierce and hostile that it can be said that even under Trump, the confrontation between the two countries has never been so serious. Items such as US full support for Alexei Navalny and increased military preparations by Washington and NATO in the Black Sea to support Ukraine against Russia all indicate deterioration in relations between Moscow and Washington.
For all that the new US president’s apparent sternness towards Moscow, the question arises as to whether the new US administration’s confrontation with Russia is so serious, or whether Biden is merely seeking assurances that Russia will be restrained. Suffers from another fundamental problem in the field of foreign policy ?!
But perhaps the most important issue is that the meeting of the Presidents of the United States and Russia in Switzerland is the most important issue in relations between the two countries.
The pessimism culminated on Friday when both sides announced that Putin and Biden would not hold a joint news conference after meeting, despite their usual practice, and that they would each hold a separate press conference.
Issues such as human rights, nuclear weapons control, the Ukraine issue, cyberattacks, as well as the constant accusation of Americans against Russia, interfering in the US presidential election, are expected to be high on Washington’s agenda to guide the two presidents.
On the other hand, the choice of Switzerland as a neutral country that has not accepted the Western sanctions against Russia, which have been in force against Moscow since 2014, is a positive signal of the effectiveness of the negotiations. Switzerland had previously hosted the historic leaders of the two Cold War superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, in November 1985, at which time talks between Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan resulted in a very favorable outcome.
New Cold War between Washington and China
But another point that could potentially divert Russia from Washington’s focus is the issue of China and the trade war between Washington and Beijing, which some analysts refer to as the new Cold War. In fact, what is certain is that Russia’s threat at this point in time has never been greater than China’s threat to the United States, and Washington’s preference is to confront and try to limit China’s power; The issue that Biden openly addressed at the recent G7 summit in Britain was, in fact, one of the main items on the agenda.
Biden hopes to form like-minded coalitions to reprimand China for its human rights allegations, including allegations of repression in Hong Kong, repression of Uyghurs, Chinese military maneuvers in the South and East China Seas, and the use of financial pressure to avenge critics.
US President Joe Biden is calling for a new global infrastructure initiative to be a better quality alternative to China’s program. In this regard, the United States is calling for a new alliance to compete with the costs that China spends on infrastructure in developing countries.