US Activates Its Foreign Policy

• 07.20.2017, 15:28
• Liana Hovhannisyan
•  America,  "Insight" Analytical Center ,  World

Recently, the newly-elected US President Donald Trump՛s administration launched an active foreign policy simultaneously in several directions.

It is noteworthy that during July only, US President Donald Trump has met with leaders of nearly two dozen countries. While at the beginning of his presidency he did not initiate foreign visits for a long time, focusing instead on the US domestic policy issues.

During his visit to Poland on July 5-6, the US President met with leaders of Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Romania, and Bulgaria, in the so-called "Three Seas Initiative" format. Energy cooperation was the main topic being discussed between the countries. As Trump noticed with humor at the meeting, cooperation with that region's countries is more important to him because his wife is from Slovenia and she loves that country.

Already in Hamburg, at the G20 Summit, Donald Trump had bilateral meetings with the Mexican President, the Prime Minister of Great Britain (it is noteworthy that Trump, before the meeting, said: "There are no countries much closer than our two countries"), Russian President (the meeting, which lasted two hours instead of the planned half an hour, the US President called  a "wonderful meeting"), Germany's Angela Merkel (Trump and Merkel had a private conversation before the G20 meeting), Indonesian President, Singapore, Japanese Prime Ministers, China’s President. It is noteworthy that besides the existing issues on the agenda, in case of all the countries, special attention had been paid to the bilateral economic cooperation. During this month Trump also left for Paris on the occasion of the Bastille Day. The presidents of the two countries highlighted the cooperation in the fight against terrorism and other agenda topics, as well as issues of economic cooperation.

It is noteworthy that in parallel with the meetings of the US President, the visit of the US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to several countries, such as Turkey, Ukraine, Arab countries (Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Qatar) took place during this period. The aim was to solve the Qatar crisis in the Arab countries and to address the crisis in Ukraine. Within the framework of his visit to Ukraine, US Secretary of State highlighted the appointment of the US Special Representative of on the Ukrainian crisis, who will try to promote rapid progress in the issue. Within the framework of his visit to Turkey, US Secretary of State talked about the need to restore the former level of trust between the two countries. As for the visit to the Arab countries, though Tillerson failed to reach any visible results in fat refers to the crisis, the visit was marked by the signing of an agreement on the steps to combat terrorism between the United States and Qatar. However it was not enough for other Arab states to mitigate Qatar sanctions.

The implementation of such an active policy in several directions should first be conditioned by the US administration’s desire of success stories in the short-term. And this desire is based on the thesis voiced by the US president still in the pre-election period on the necessity to restore the "US international reputation". Additionally, on the background of anti-Trump measures in the US and the "unfriendly" attitude towards the US president by the overseas counterparts, Donald Trump aims to raise his personal reputation both inside and outside the US. In the context of such aspirations of the current US administration, we will further witness the ongoing active US foreign policy, which can be expanded by including new areas, and our region, in particular.