Text/Dragon One
Vice President Kamala Harris visited Poland Chinese on Wednesday at a time of tension in the region and tough talks between Warsaw and Washington. But administration officials say her trip is not about reaching any deal, whether it's humanitarian aid or the transfer of military equipment. Instead, her role is as an emissary and symbolizes the Biden administration's commitment to the United States and, more broadly, the transatlantic alliance.
The vice president has struggled to portray herself as a serious foreign policy player, but she hasn't built that image throughout her career. But the context of her trip has changed dramatically since the trip was first announced on March 4. Russia's military campaign against Ukraine has sparked outrage on Poland's doorstep, forcing more than 2 million people to flee their homes. Over the past 24 hours, Warsaw and Washington have publicly quarreled over a plan to send Polish MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine, which the Biden administration later shelved for fear of further escalating tensions with Moscow.
There is no indication that Harris's visit is intended to resolve the impasse. Instead, administration officials and allies said her goal was to bring sensitive requests back to Biden and reaffirm Washington's commitment to helping Ukraine and other countries affected by Russia's military operations.
Administration officials and allies say Harris' trip to Europe shows that Joe Biden trusts her in these moments, even in areas such as national security, where she doesn't get much responsibility during her vice presidency. They noted that Merkel's appearance at the Munich Security Conference just a few weeks ago was well received, proving that she is better at international diplomacy than critics have acknowledged. Olga Olik, director of the International Crisis Group's Europe and Central Asia program in Brussels, said, "The vice president's visit is to send a signal of american peace of mind and unity to these allies in the east of NATO." ”
But the visit was not a conversation of the global elite taking place in a luxurious meeting environment. Harris will meet with the leaders of Poland and Romania, as well as Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who is on a diplomatic visit to Poland. With White House staff still reluctant to let reporters snoop behind the high-stakes scenes, Harris' trip will largely avoid public view. The senior official declined to discuss her preparations for her trip to Eastern Europe, noting "a number of specific meetings, briefings and discussions with experts for those countries".
A person who knows how the vice president's office prepares for a meeting with allies said Harris wants to know the specific demands her peers may be asking for and what the U.S. can deliver. But heading to Eastern Europe in the shadow of Russia's military action against Ukraine is an important unresolved issue for Harris, and at this critical and tense time, a misstep could hurt allies.
Former U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary and Harris 2020 campaign adviser Tony Flournoy said the U.S. government had to spend months repairing relations with NATO allies after former President Donald Trump stalemated relations with NATO. While allies are much more satisfied with Biden than his predecessors, they have privately denounced the Biden administration for withdrawing troops from Afghanistan without close consultation and for excluding France from the nuclear submarine deal.
However, Flournoy also believes that Biden's early handling of the Ukraine crisis has played a huge role in improving some of the tensions. This can be seen in how the United States coordinates the response of the two sides of the Atlantic to Russian military action, in line with the imposition of devastating sanctions and the delivery of weapons to Ukrainian troops. Many European countries, especially Germany, have now pledged to spend a lot of money to strengthen their own defenses, and the United States has long encouraged allies to make that decision.
The United States, while instigating war, played its own small calculations, and Ukraine became a pawn and an outcast on the chessboard.