A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
President Biden travels to Peru and Brazil this week.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
He's meeting with leaders of the world's biggest economies at two summits, APEC in Lima and the G20 in Rio. It's his last big foreign trip where he'll meet a large group of world leaders, and it might be his last chance to make a major statement on the global stage, but it comes on the heels of Donald Trump's victory. It's an awkward moment, so how does he shape his parting message?
MARTÍNEZ: NPR's White House correspondent Asma Khalid will be traveling along. So President Biden has said many times that America's back when he's talking about working with allies, Asma. Donald Trump is back, too, now, so what's he going to say?
ASMA KHALID, BYLINE: Well, Biden came into office after Trump shocked world leaders with the way that he conducted foreign policy. You'll probably recall, you know, Trump did not like NATO, and he was openly skeptical of a whole bunch of other alliances. And so Biden has spent the last four years trying to rebuild alliances, expand NATO, working to counter China. But, you know, as you say, he is now in this awkward position. Trump is back with his same worldview that was threatening broad-based tariffs on friends and foes.
MARTÍNEZ: So how does Biden's message have to shift now after this election?
KHALID: Yeah. I mean, Biden is still expected to provide some reassurances about the long-term U.S. commitment to the world. You know, former President Barack Obama was in a similar position in the fall of 2016. He also traveled to Peru shortly after Trump's first victory. And Ben Rhodes, who was former Obama's - one of his advisers was on that trip, and he told me at that point, Obama's message was wait and see. You know, you don't know exactly how Trump will govern and engage with the world. But he says that is not the message Biden can give now.
BEN RHODES: I think what's changed in eight years, the rest of the world has really priced Trump in, and I don't think that there's any time in the last four years where any country wasn't hedging against a Trump return.
KHALID: And, you know, multiple former Obama aides told me that there was a sense in 2016 that the world may have seen Trump as an aberration. That is no longer the case. You know, and I spoke to other people, though, I will say, who point out that international partners have a longer view of the United States' relationship with the world. Take Danielle Pletka. She's with the conservative think tank the American Enterprise Institute. And she told me that Trump may have an untraditional approach, but he is still going to be engaged in the world.
DANIELLE PLETKA: U.S. global leadership is based not simply on sentimental ideas about the beauty of NATO or about what great chardonnay we all get together at the G7, right? U.S. global leadership is based on the fact that we are the largest economy in the world.
MARTÍNEZ: That chardonnay better be really good, Asma. I mean, you would think. It's the G7. OK, so how does the return of Donald Trump then affect global relationship with China? That's the world's second-largest economy.
KHALID: Yeah. I mean, that's one thing I'll be watching closely for this week because China's Xi Jinping is also expected to travel to South America for these meetings. You know, broadly, I will say Biden has not drastically broken with Trump on China policy. He largely maintained the Trump-era tariffs on China, and he deepened cooperation with India, Japan and Australia, building on an initiative that Trump began. And, you know, one practical message Biden could try to make this week is that the threat of more tariffs from Trump is real, and so China and other countries ought to play by the rules.
MARTÍNEZ: All right, that's NPR's Asma Khalid. Thank you very much.
KHALID: Good to speak with you.
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