The Republicans’ tough demands as a condition for supporting Ukraine are a sign of a big change in US foreign policy, to which Europe must adapt, writes ‘s US correspondent Iida Tikka.
Iida TikkaYhdysvaltain correspondent
WASHINGTON. President of Ukraine to Volodymyr Zelensky and the President of the United States Joe Biden the meeting at the White House ended with a warning on Tuesday.
– He [Putin] counting on the US to fail. We have to prove him wrong, Biden said at a news conference.
Biden meant his words to Congress, which is still debating whether to continue supporting Ukraine. Biden would like to send a new aid package of more than 60 billion dollars to Ukraine, which many Republicans are reluctant to do.
Even Zelenskyi’s on-site visit to Capitol Hill did not move the minds of House Republicans.
– I have made it clear from my first day as chairman that our own national security comes first when deciding on additional funding related to national security, Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson said after meeting with Zelenskyi.
With his statement, Johnson referred to the situation at the southern border of the United States, i.e. the fact that thousands of people enter the United States illegally every day.
House Republicans want additional funding for the border and changes to the border policy as a condition for support for Ukraine. The demands of the parties are in radical conflict with the immigration reforms the Democrats want, which has brought the negotiations to a dead end.
All of a sudden, the Republicans’ game could be considered an ordinary show in Washington, where opportunism and connecting unrelated issues is part of the political culture.
This time, however, this is not the case, but the Republican resistance indicates a much deeper change in US foreign policy decision-making.
It tells about the attitude of the Republicans first of all, the fact that they have chosen immigration policy as a bone of contention.
America’s southern border and immigration policy have been broken for decades. Even so, last year has been exceptional, as border crossings have skyrocketed after the rules for returning asylum seekers during the pandemic expired.
Both parties want changes to immigration policy. For example, the Democrats would like the application process to be streamlined to reduce the amount of applications and for asylum seekers to receive a temporary work permit immediately.
In their new demands, the Republicans, on the other hand, have presented ways to make it more difficult to apply for asylum, among other things. The party wants, for example, that arrivals could not apply for asylum in the United States if they have arrived in the country through another safe country.
The views of the parties are therefore partly opposite, and the Republicans do not seem ready to compromise. When Biden indicated last week that he was willing to negotiate on many of the Republican proposals, the party toughened its demands even more.
A hard game tells first everything from the fact that the Republicans’ relationship with US foreign policy has changed significantly, and in an alarming direction for Europe.
Political bargaining has always been a part of Washington culture: parties routinely trade political priorities when negotiating legislative packages or raising the debt ceiling.
What is extraordinary is that we are now twisting foreign policy. For decades, US foreign policy has been the one issue on which the parties have been relatively unanimous.
US foreign and security policies have also been somewhat protected from the opinions of voters. Alignments have changed very slowly, if at all, even if the entire nation had agreed on something – the prolongation of the unpopular war in Afghanistan for 20 years is just one example of this.
Now that doesn’t seem to be the case anymore. The Republican line has changed, largely because the minds of the party’s voters have changed. In a survey by the Pew Polling Center nearly half of Republicans thought the United States was sending too much aid to Ukraine.
That’s a worrying signal for America’s European partners. If foreign policy depends on public opinion, it is unpredictable.