In Europe, Blinken Urges Democracies to Counter China, Russia

With relief, Blinken is being welcomed by European diplomats as the kind of old-school diplomat they feel comfortable with. The Biden administration is showing willingness to consult European leaders and stand up for international treaties and institutions, such as the Paris climate agreement and the World Trade Organization, multilateral solutions that were anathema to Trump.

Recently, Blinken said the U.S. wants back onto the United Nations Human Rights Council, the same body that Trump dropped out of because, as his administration said, it was a “cesspool of political bias.” The council’s work is mired in doubts because numerous countries with bad human rights records, including Russia and China, sit on it and defend each other.

For now, the White House is seeking to win the trust of the world by becoming a standard bearer for human rights. Last week, Biden said he believes Russian President Vladimir Putin is a “killer,” a clear reference to allegations that Putin has ordered the killings of opposition figures. Blinken’s State Department has issued a steady stream of condemnations of human rights abuses in China, Russia, Myanmar, Turkey, Zimbabwe, Belarus, Syria.

With democracy and human rights in retreat across the globe, Blinken said the U.S. and its allies must prove that democracy is the best solution.

“There is no doubt that we have been experiencing in recent years what some have called a democratic recession,” Blinken said.

“At the very same time that's happening, we're seeing the rise and strength of autocracies that are posing a direct challenge to democracies and saying: 'We can deliver better for our people,'” he added. “So the main challenge we have I think is to demonstrate exactly the opposite: That democracies are more adept at delivering what people need and what they want.”

Without mentioning specifics, he acknowledged the U.S. too has been afflicted with its own internal problems and difficulties in upholding human rights.

“It's also no secret that the United States has had its own challenges in recent years, in recent months on that score,” he said.

But Blinken said the domestic upheaval gives the U.S. a chance to emerge even stronger and more united.

“When we have a challenge, including an internal challenge, we confront it openly, transparently for the entire world to see,” he said. “We don't try to sweep it under the rug, we don't try to ignore it.”

He said the “process of confronting shortcomings can be painful, it can be ugly, but ultimately we emerge stronger for it.” He said the U.S. can be a powerful example of how a society deals with its social ills in a democratic fashion.

In pursuing a foreign affairs policy focused on bolstering democratic values, he suggested Biden will not use military force to build democracies, an obvious reference to the American-led downfall of regimes in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya that failed to bring about the kind of democratic gains and stability American policymakers promised. In the past, Blinken supported those military interventions.  

“I think democracy promotion has gotten arguably a bad name in recent decades because it's been understood as something that we've sometimes engaged in through force,” he said. “That's not what we're about.”

Judy Dempsey, a senior fellow at the Brussels-based Carnegie Europe think tank, said in a note the EU should seize this opportunity to both back the Biden administration and further its own geopolitical and economic goals.

“The Europeans should emulate – indeed, capitalize on – that energy and zeal [of the Biden White House] by working to push the transatlantic relationship and other democracies to embrace an agenda that can marry values with interests. This could be a strategic first for the EU – if it chooses to seize the opportunity," Dempsey wrote.

Still, it remains far from certain that the EU will eagerly follow the U.S. in its push against Russia and China. European leaders are deeply divided over how to deal with both superpowers and many in Europe fear being trapped on one side of this growing conflict.

One major indicator in relations between the U.S. and EU will be over a threat by the Biden administration to impose sanctions on any entity that is collaborating on a gas pipeline project between Germany and Russia, the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. The pipeline is nearing completion and Washington could spark a major political row with Germany, the EU’s biggest economy and most powerful member, if it stops the pipeline from delivering gas. Germany’s political and business elite are largely in favor of the pipeline.  

Courthouse News reporter Cain Burdeau is based in the European Union.

Follow @cainburdeau

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