President Joe Biden’s attempts at deepening ties in the Pacific are again competing with other, pressing issues, this time the brewing war in the Middle East that is looming over his lavish state welcome for Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
Biden’s invitation to his Australian counterpart was a consolation prize after he abruptly scrapped a planned visit down under earlier this year to return to Washington when the US government was on the verge of a calamitous debt default. At the time, the scrambled plans were viewed as a sign of dysfunctional American politics interrupting the administration’s efforts to counter China’s growing influence in the Pacific.
Five months later, Albanese will be welcomed to the White House with the highest trappings of American diplomacy, including a black-tie state dinner underneath a tent erected on the South Lawn.
This time, it’s the escalating crisis in the Middle East that has become an all-consuming focus for the president and his team, who are simultaneously working to free hostages held in Gaza, ease a humanitarian crisis, ensure Israel has the support it needs and prevent a wider war from erupting in the region.
The war in Israel has forced the Biden administration to realign its foreign policy agenda dramatically amid a proliferation of global flashpoints. Officials insist they are more than capable of confronting the new war alongside other foreign policy priorities, and they point to Tuesday’s state visit as evidence of the multitasking. Advisers say no president has had the luxury of grappling with only one crisis at a time.
“You can’t convince me that wisdom and experience are a bad thing – and now we’re seeing that,” former Rep. Cedric Richmond, who is a co-chair of Biden’s 2024 reelection campaign, told CNN.
One former senior US official cited the lack of…
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