The US Electoral College confirmed Democrat Joe Biden’s victory on Monday, in the 3 November presidential election with 306 ballots cast in his favor. President Donald Trump still declines to concede, pointing to what he describes as voter fraud.
Former US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley has urged the country’s President-elect Joe Biden “to prioritise continuity in three critical areas” pertaining to Washington’s foreign policy after he enters office.
In an opinion piece for The Washington Post, Haley argued that Biden rejecting most of President Donald Trump’s foreign policy “would be a mistake” because it may “endanger American safety and interests”.
According to the ex-US envoy to the UN, the president-elect should stick to the policy pursued by Trump with respect to China, which is “the most serious global threat the United States faces”.
“China feeds on American openness like a parasite, using it to strengthen itself. The right course is to further limit Chinese access to our companies, telecommunications, and universities, as the United States did with the Soviet Union, while building additional military, economic, and diplomatic strength”, Haley asserted.
The ongoing US-China trade war over tariffs has spread to numerous Chinese tech firms, including Huawei, ZTE, and TikTok owner ByteDance, with Washington imposing an array of sanctions on the companies and citing alleged national security risks.
Haley also called on Biden not to reject Trump’s pressure on what she described as “Latin American dictatorships”, referring, in particular, to Venezuela, where the US president used “unprecedented sanctions and forged a regional alliance” against the Nicolas Maduro government.
“In Latin America, as elsewhere, Biden would do well to stand up to US enemies and stand for US values”, Haley claimed.
A political and economic crisis in Venezuela further worsened at the beginning of last year, when opposition figure Juan Guaido proclaimed himself interim president in an attempt to topple President Maduro. The US, along with a number of its allies recognized Guaido as president, while Russia and China supported Maduro as the country’s only legitimate head of state.
Additionally, the former US envoy to the UN urged Biden “to encourage the remarkable progress of Arab-Israeli peace”, a task that Hailey argued could be resolved by isolating Iran and endorsing “harmony between Israel and the Arab states, which now clearly see their common interests”.
Tensions between Washington and Iran, in place since Washington’s unilateral exit from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, further soured in early 2020, when top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani was killed by a US drone strike authorised by Trump.
“Staying the course on China, Latin America, and the Middle East is the right path. Biden can expand on our success and promote America’s interests in each. It would be disastrous if he missed the opportunity because of a partisan desire to reverse the course of his predecessor”, Haley concluded.
Few days after the US Electoral College vote, her remarks came which resulted in Biden passing the threshold of 270 electoral votes required for him to become president. He secured 306 votes, while his Republican rival Donald Trump received 232.
The US Congress will certify the Electoral college vote on 6 January. The critic of the POTUS continues the 3 November US presidential election for purported voter fraud.
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