(AFP) – President Joe Biden embarks on a somber farewell tour of South America Thursday, with two major summits and a historic rainforest trip all overshadowed by Donald Trump’s world-shaking US election win. Biden had hoped his six-day swing through Peru and Brazil would be a kind of handover to his Democratic heir Kamala Harris — but instead it is Republican Trump who will replace him in the White House.
As he bids goodbye to fellow world leaders, the 81-year-old will be desperately trying to shore up a legacy on foreign policy, climate, migration, and trade that his successor has threatened to tear up. Whether his counterparts at the APEC summit in Lima and the G20 in Rio de Janeiro will see much value in talking to a lame-duck president is open to question.
Biden is set to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in Peru for the second meeting in just over a year aimed at reducing tensions with a key adversary — and he will have trilateral talks with the leaders of allies Japan and South Korea. On the eve of his departure, the White House insisted that Biden’s trip was still relevant, especially as US allies deal with the reality of Trump 2.0. US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said that in Peru on Friday and Saturday “the president will reinforce America’s leading role” in the Asia-Pacific region.
With China fearing a trade war with Trump and huge tariffs, Biden’s encounter with Xi would be “an important meeting. It will not be just a valedictory,” said Sullivan. “There is actual work to do in this critical moment between the US and China to ensure that we don’t run into any problems in the next two months, in this transition of power,” he said. But at every turn, Biden’s tour threatens to run into the specter of a new Trump administration.
On Sunday, he will become the first sitting US president to visit the Amazon rainforest when he travels to Manaus in Brazil — weeks before climate change-denying Trump comes to office. Trump took the United States out of the Paris climate accords during his first term and has pledged to do so again. Sullivan said Biden’s visit would “underscore his personal commitment… to combat climate change at home and abroad.”
His appearance at the G20 in Rio will meanwhile see him push for support for Ukraine’s fight against Russia’s invasion — amid speculation that Trump could reduce US aid and push Kyiv into conceding territory for a peace deal. In Rio, the US president will also have his final meeting with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, with whom he has had warm ties, particularly over worker rights.
But Biden’s trip overall is likely to be an attempt to reassure allies worried about what Trump’s victory means for American leadership in the world. “He is going to have the same message that he’s had for four years as president, which is that he believes that America’s allies are vital to America’s national security,” said Sullivan. “They make us stronger.”
They may also ask Biden for clues about what they might expect from Trump, since the two presidents met for nearly two hours at the White House on Wednesday. It’s a far cry, though, from how Biden might have imagined his final trip to a vital region America still regards as its backyard. Biden staked his legacy on rebuilding alliances after Trump’s first term — only to see his rival and his “America First” policies set to return stronger than ever.
The Democrat often told the anecdote about how he told a summit in 2021 that “America’s back” — only for one world leader to wonder “for how long?” As he boards Air Force One on Thursday, the answer may not be what Biden hoped for.
– Danny KEMP
© 2024 AFP
