Shortly after becoming president, Joe Biden promised a course-correction in US foreign policy that would “better unite our democratic values with our diplomatic leadership”.
It was part of an effort to draw a line under the Trump era, which downgraded Washington’s global role, its support for human rights and co-ordination with democratic allies. Where Donald Trump’s “America First” policy included unprecedented outreach to autocratic leaders, Biden signalled he would re-establish US moral leadership in defence of democracies worldwide.
Biden’s commitment to put democratic values at the core of US foreign policy has been called into question following Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko’s norm-busting seizure of a commercial flight carrying an opposition activist.