Trend Overview 

By John Hardie 

Welcome back to the Biden Administration Foreign Policy Tracker. Once a month, we ask FDD’s experts and scholars to assess the administration’s foreign policy. They provide trendlines of very positive, positive, neutral, negative, or very negative for the areas they watch. 

Looking to counter China’s influence in the Indo-Pacific, the U.S. military kicked off the biennial Talisman Sabre military exercise, in which a record 30,000 troops from 13 countries participated. At the same time, the administration is also seeking to rebuild a “working relationship” with Beijing, with little apparent success.  

At the NATO summit in Vilnius, the allies pledged further support for Ukraine but declined to grant Kyiv’s request for a clear roadmap toward NATO accession. The allies also committed to spend at least 2 percent of GDP on defense and formally agreed on military plans to defend against a potential Russian attack. Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced a deal to eliminate Turkey’s roadblock to Sweden’s NATO accession, although the Turkish parliament has yet to ratify it. Earlier in the month, the administration made the controversial decision to send Kyiv cluster munitions, aimed at sustaining Ukraine’s ongoing counteroffensive. 

The administration continues to struggle to advance U.S. interests at the United Nations, with a Chinese candidate winning re-election to lead the Food and Agriculture Organization. Meanwhile, the administration further relaxed sanctions against Iran. The U.S. military did, however, dispatch additional forces to the region to deter Iranian threats to commercial shipping. 

Check back next month to see how the Biden administration deals with these and other challenges.