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ICYMI: Rep. Hill in the Washington Examiner: "Biden is allowing US adversaries to undermine its interests"

Washington, D.C. - Rep. French Hill (AR-02) wrote an op-ed placed in the Washington Examiner calling on President Biden to prioritize American interests as the president meets with foreign entities abroad.

 

The op-ed can be viewed in the Washington Examiner HERE.

 

A full transcript of the op-ed can be found below:

 

Biden is allowing US adversaries to undermine its interests

 

by Rep. French Hill

 

Last month, President Joe Biden completed his first international trip. From Queen Elizabeth and the United Kingdom prime minister to leaders of the G-7 and our NATO allies, Biden met with many of America’s traditional allies and partners. He also met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin, two figures who have actively worked to undermine U.S. interests and values in recent years.

 

By many accounts, it was a successful jaunt across the Atlantic, even though there are others who would contradict such fanfare, including most of my Republican colleagues.

 

The most noticeable aspect of the entire trip was how unremarkable it was. The leaders at the G-7 issued their communique, calling for efforts to end the pandemic, prepare for the future, and reinvigorate the world’s economies, all the while protecting the environment and strengthening partnerships based on shared values. This was expected. NATO leaders agreed to a 2030 NATO agenda to help ensure the preparedness of member states to meet new and emerging challenges. This was expected. Biden and U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced an Atlantic Charter. This was also expected. Even the meetings with the leaders of Russia and Turkey went as expected, with each side agreeing to disagree.

 

While this should come as no surprise to anyone, the outcomes of the trip call into question whether the president’s foreign policy is the foreign policy America needs. His domestic policy is already undermining our economic recovery and job growth, eroding our energy security, and making millions more dependent on the government, not to mention the crisis at our southern border. We do not need a repeat of this on the world stage. Thus far, his overtures have led to little but grandiose communiques and paper statements, all the while permitting China, Iran, and our other adversaries to continue acting with impunity, undermining America’s interests and standing around the world.

 

While I believe many of the statements from Biden’s trip are full of good intentions, they should be a cause of concern for Americans. The world does not need a global Green New Deal, which will depress economies and hurt workers. The Build Back Better World Partnership, while laudable, provides few, if any, details as to who will foot the bill and how these infrastructure projects will be awarded. I am also for increasing special drawing rights, but not in the manner proposed at the G-7 summit in Cornwall because it will only further empower the likes of China, Iran, Russia, and others, who are the likely recipients of the SDRs in their current form. In addition, the call for a global minimum tax will hurt, not help, the competitiveness of U.S. firms.

 

Biden’s determination to return to the Iran nuclear deal is further undermining security in the greater region. Iran has proven itself untrustworthy and a perpetrator of terror and human rights abuses, and with the recent election of hard-liner Ebrahim Raisi as president, I see little hope that the country will change course. In Afghanistan, worries over the future of the country are real with the U.S. withdrawal nearly complete. Recent pledges by Biden and NATO member states to continue to support and train Afghan security forces are commendable yet not reassuring that U.S. resources and sacrifices over the past two decades won’t be for naught.

 

The same is true in Central America. Neither Vice President Kamala Harris’s words, “Do not come,” at a news conference in Guatemala nor her recent trip to the southern border did anything to address the crisis there. The Biden administration is rehashing previous ineffectual strategies for the region, proving that it lacks a plan to work with partners in the Northern Triangle to address the situation both in the short and long term. As a result, American communities in the border region are suffering, with our streets across the nation growing less safe by the day.

 

The U.S. is facing an array of challenges across the globe. We have been here before, and we have succeeded. If America is to address these challenges once again, the nation needs leaders who are up to the challenge. Grand overtures and misplaced promises will not cut it. Through their recent trips abroad, both Biden and Harris have shown their inability to work toward tangible outcomes that strengthen our standing abroad, hold our adversaries accountable, and prepare America to face 21st-century challenges.