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Biden heads to Germany to highlight new US diplomacy
2009-02-06
WILLIAMSBURG, Virginia (AFP) - US Vice President Joe Biden Friday offered a first glimpse of Obama-era foreign policy before leaving on the debut trip abroad by a top power broker in the new administration. The vice president said that Washington would have to be more "aggressive" in promoting political reform in Iraq, called for more help from US allies in Afghanistan and promoted a proposed 1.5 billion dollar aid plan for Pakistan. The White House meanwhile released details of Biden's program at the annual Wehrkunde international security conference in Munich this weekend, seen as the first chance for the administration to sketch the new US global footprint. On the sidelines of the conference, Biden will make the first moves in the ongoing US diplomatic chess game with the Kremlin, in talks Sunday with Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov. He will also meet leaders of other key US allies. In a sometimes somber speech to Democratic members of the House of Representatives on a Virginia retreat, the vice president said last week's elections suggested progress was being made in Iraq, but more had to be done. Biden said Iraq's leaders had not "gotten their political arrangements together yet." "Our administration is going to have to be very deeply involved not only keeping the commitment that we've made drawing down our troops in an orderly fashion consistent with what we said," Biden warned. From now on, Washington would have to be "much more aggressive ... forcing them to deal with those issues," Biden said. The Obama administration has pledged to go ahead with plans to withdraw most combat troops from Iraq within 16 months, and to divert resources to Afghanistan and the fight against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. The vice president said that the administration would also revive a plan to send 1.5 billion dollars of military aid to Pakistan, which he drew up while chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations committee. In Afghanistan, Biden said the United States and its allies still have a "long, long way to go" in terms of security and infrastructure development, but stressed he was voicing private views as an administration review of Afghan policy is not yet complete. Biden also sent another signal that Washington may call for more input on Afghanistan from US allies, despite signs of reluctance from key powers in Europe. "We expect to share (our) commitment with governments and the people of Afghanistan and Pakistan as well as our friends and partners," he said. The vice president will give a speech in Munich calling on US allies to work together to confront common security challenges, the White House said. His meeting with Ivanov will be closely watched for signs that the Obama administration will try to cool the heated tensions with Russia which marked the later years of George W. Bush's presidency. Biden is also set to meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and French President Nicolas Sarkozy. There will also be talks at the conference with British Foreign Secretary David Miliband and top NATO officials, the White House said in a statement. On Sunday, he will see Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili. Biden's delegation will include national security advisor General James Jones, the special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke, and the top commander of US forces in Afghanistan and Iraq General David Petraeus. European diplomats in Munich are eagerly awaiting Biden's appearance, as the conference has often been the venue for American administrations to reveal their thinking on foreign policy doctrine. Speculation is rife in Germany that Biden, who has a series of bilateral meetings outside the formal sessions here, will announce a review of the US missile defense shield, which Bush worked to expand into Europe. Washington says the shield is meant to counter a growing ballistic missile threat from Iran, but the plan has deeply angered Russia which sees it as a menace to its own missile capabilities.
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