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Foreign policy under Harris would bring continuity with distinct nuances

The White House — With Vice President Kamala Harris set to face off with Republican nominee former President Donald Trump in the November election, her foreign policy positions – including on military support for Israel and Ukraine, threats from a rising China, and the migrant crisis in the U.S. border with Mexico – are under increased scrutiny.

In her speech at the Munich Security Conference in February, Harris laid out elements of what a White House official described as her worldview.

“I believe it is in the fundamental interest of the American people for the United States to fulfill our long-standing role of global leadership,” Harris said.

Trump and his allies say Harris will be weak against America’s adversaries and continue what they call Biden’s disastrous policies in various regions of the world and on illegal immigration.

“She was a bum, a failed vice president in a failed administration,” Trump said at the Turning Point Summit in Florida late last month. “With millions of people crossing. And she was the border czar.”

Harris was asked to coordinate diplomatic relationships to address the root causes of the migration of thousands of Central Americans who attempt to enter the U.S. each year at the U.S.-Mexico border. She was not the administration’s border czar.

But she has brought a tough message to the campaign trail, highlighting her experience as California’s attorney general going after “transnational gangs, drug cartels and human traffickers,” that came into the U.S. illegally.

“I prosecuted them in case after case and I won,” she said earlier this week during her rally in Atlanta. “Donald Trump, on the other hand, has been talking a big game about securing our border, but he does not walk the walk.”

Middle East conflict

If elected, Harris will inherit the administration’s ongoing effort of preventing – if not managing – a wider war in the Middle East while continuing to support its ally, Israel.

That effort has taken extensive diplomatic resources and military deterrence from the administration since the October 7 Hamas attack that triggered the war in Gaza.

Analysts predict Harris is unlikely to veer from Biden’s long-term policy goals: a two-state solution that ensures Israel’s security and Palestinian statehood, and regional integration of Israel and Arab allies to counter Iran and its proxies.

Administration officials underscore that a cease-fire in Gaza is a crucial first step. Following the assassination of leaders of Iran-backed proxies Hamas and Hezbollah this week, Harris reaffirmed support for Israel’s right to self-defense while calling for an immediate halt to the fighting.

However, with a large swath of the Democratic electorate angry at the president’s staunch support for Israel, she appears to be projecting a much more sympathetic tone toward Palestinians.

“We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering,” she said in remarks following her meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week. “And I will not be silent.”

European security

In Europe, Harris has been a strong advocate of Biden’s policy pillars: helping Ukraine defend its sovereignty while preventing direct conflict with Russia and maintaining unity in transatlantic alliances.

The White House official declined to speculate on what U.S. policy on Ukraine would look like under a Harris administration but pointed to her record in advocating for Kyiv.

“You’ve seen her stand up to dictators like Putin, you’ve seen her work with our allies in Europe to ensure that Ukraine has what it needs to defend itself,” the official told VOA. “She has been a critical component of maintaining NATO unity.”

In her two meetings with Volodymyr Zelenskyy this year, in Munich and at the Peace Summit in Switzerland in June, Harris reassured the Ukrainian president of the administration’s commitment to support his country’s fight against Russia, despite increasing Republican opposition in Congress.

Should Republicans keep control the House of Representatives and should Democrats lose their slim majority in the Senate, Harris will have an uphill battle to keep U.S. funds flowing for Ukraine.

Rivalry with China

Harris has been the administration’s lead in shoring up alliances in the Indo-Pacific, where China is expanding its diplomatic and economic clout. She has been to the region several times, meeting leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the Asia Pacific Economic Forum.

She has been outspoken in standing up against Beijing’s increased aggression in the South China Sea, underscoring U.S. commitment to defend “international rules and norms,” and reaffirming support to Manila, a treaty ally.

In 2022, Harris became the first high-ranking U.S. official to visit the Philippines’ tiny Palawan island chain, just 330 kilometers east of the disputed Spratly Islands claimed entirely by China and partly by Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.

She will continue to strengthen these partnerships and alliances, said Robert Daly, director of the Wilson Center’s Kissinger Institute on China and the U.S.

On the trade side, Harris has said she will continue to work to de-risk from China, continuing trade and investment activities but reducing reliance on a single supplier.

“We know that when she ran for president in 2020, she was fairly tariff averse,” Daly told VOA. “Like President Biden, she seems to have changed her mind about that. So, more continuity.”

The vice president has also been vocal on human rights issues, and as a senator worked on legislation against abuses in Hong Kong and Xinjiang – another red light for Beijing.

Nontraditional security threats

Harris has focused on nontraditional security threats, chairing the National Space Council and promoting the administration’s policies on artificial intelligence and climate on various global forums.

“She has been big on these technology issues, on space, on climate,” said Linda Robinson, senior fellow for Women and Foreign Policy at the Council on Foreign Relations.

“That’s where you could expect to see a real effort to try to have people understand that climate change, if not really addressed quickly, we’re past that point of no return,” she told VOA.

Before her term as a senator, Harris was a San Francisco district attorney and California attorney general with little foreign policy experience. But in her 3½ years as vice president, she has traveled to 21 countries and met with 150 leaders.

Still, Trump and his allies have sought to paint her as an inexperienced and unaccomplished candidate, as well as “a radical left lunatic who will destroy our country.”

In response, Harris goaded Trump, who has yet to accept her challenge to a presidential candidate debate, saying, “If you got something to say, say it to my face.”
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