Washington: President Joe Biden told President-elect Donald Trump that defending Ukraine was in American national security interest because a strong and stable Europe that could stand up to aggressors was essential to ensuring that the US didn’t get dragged back into wars on the European continent, US national security adviser (NSA) Jake Sullivan said.
In a two-hour long meeting on Wednesday that White House described as “gracious, cordial and substantive”, Biden also told Trump that the money US was spending on Ukraine was actually being spent in US to produce American weapons, create jobs, and strengthen America’s own defence industrial base.
Briefing reporters after the meeting at White House, in response to a question about the threats he would flag to his successor, Sullivan said that the competition from China ought to be the paramount priority of the administration, while flagging Iran as an immediate challenge. Biden will meet Xi Jinping on November 16, their third and final meeting during the American president’s term, in Peru on the sidelines of the APEC summit.
Biden and Trump met in Oval Office, with the President promising the man who was both his predecessor and will now be his successor a smooth and peaceful transition of power. Biden’s chief of staff Jeff Zients, and Trump’s chief of staff, Susan Wiles, attended the meeting that covered both domestic and foreign policy issues. Trump had come with a set of questions.
Strengthening Ukraine’s hand
On Ukraine, Biden has made repelling Russian aggression a defining feature of his presidency while Trump has blamed Biden for not being able to stop Russian invasion in the first place, opposed the quantum of aid to Kyiv, and promised peace even before he took office with his aides indicating that Ukraine will have to live with ceding territory.
Asked about Biden’s message to Trump on the subject, Sullivan said that Biden had continued to reinforce that US standing with Ukraine “on an ongoing basis” was in US national security interest. “And it’s in our national security interest because a strong Europe, a stable Europe, standing up to aggressors and dictators and pushing back against their aggression is vital to ensuring that we don’t end up getting dragged directly into a war, which has happened, obviously, twice in the 20th century on the European continent.”
Seeking to counter a Republican talking point that suggests that American resources are being sent to Ukraine, Sullivan said that Biden also made the case that funds weren’t being “shipped” to another country. “They are dollars we are investing here in the United States in American jobs, producing American weapons that we send to Ukraine and American weapons that we are building to expand our own industrial base and our own military capacity to deter other adversaries all around the world. So, he laid this out. He will continue to make this case as we go forward.”
Sullivan said that during the transition, a period he characterised as a particularly sensitive time, his team would brief their successors on what they were seeing but also how the US could put Ukraine “in the strongest possible position on the battlefield so that it’s in the strongest possible position at the negotiating table for an ultimate deal”.
The China challenge
Trump has picked an army veteran, a Congressman, a critic of China and the co-chair of the House India caucus, Michael Waltz, as his NSA. Sullivan said he knew and respected Waltz.
Asked what advice he would give to his successor, and what are the most urgent threats the US faces, Sullivan said, “If you look out at a strategic level, the competition with the People’s Republic of China is going to be defining for what the world looks like over the course of the next 10, 20, and 30 years, and so that has got to be a paramount priority for the incoming administration.”
Sullivan said that Waltz had been working on these issues, as has the person slated for Secretary of State, Marco Rubio. “We will look forward to talking to them about how we’ve approached it and obviously pass on the current state of play.”
Sullivan flagged Iran as the more immediate threat for the next administration. “There is the most immediate issue, which is Iran and its proxy groups continue to take actions that directly threaten Americans and American interests in the Middle East, and that has to be dealt with on an urgent basis.”
Between the two macro and micro issues, Sullivan said there remained a range of other challenges, referring specifically to Russian invasion of Ukraine and North Korea “coming from behind” to provide troops in that war to Russia. “So, these are all issues for which we have clear approaches, working in coordination with allies and partners, and we are going to try to ensure that we pass off each of these areas to the next team in a way that is as smooth as possible.”