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US President Joe Biden at the White House.Evan Vucci / AP
The new president of the United States, Joe Biden, marked on Thursday two fundamental lines of what his country's foreign policy will be in the next four years.
Both represent an important and positive change of direction with respect to what Donald Trump did and also significantly affect security policy in Europe and the Middle East.
In his first major foreign policy speech, Biden announced that he will keep the 11,900 US troops in Germany that Trump intended to withdraw from the 34,500 stationed there.
The suspension of this decision, taken in June of last year, is a reassuring reaffirmation of Washington's commitment to defending Europe in a period when relations with Russia are going through very low moments and whose latest example is the diplomatic retaliation adopted by Moscow. in the face of criticism of the imprisonment of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalni.
Trump always considered the military presence in Europe - which dates back to the end of World War II and reached several hundred thousand soldiers during the Cold War - an unnecessary expense.
It was a myopic vision of Western defense strategy that the realism of the new president has been in charge of putting in place.
Furthermore, the direct warning to Moscow that it does not intend to ignore aggressive actions such as "poisonings" or "cyberattacks" is another clear message that, after four years of disorientation, Washington has decided to remain firm in its commitment to defending Europe.
In another notable move, Biden announced that he is suspending arms sales to Saudi Arabia - which Trump tried to do to the end - to fight Yemen's civil war.
Hours later, the State Department said that it will revoke the inclusion of the Yemeni Houthi rebels on the list of terrorist organizations approved by Trump a few days ago.
In this way, Riyadh receives an unequivocal signal that it does not have carte blanche to act in a conflict where serious human rights violations have been reported.
Welcome the change.
