The coronavirus pandemic has put much of American foreign policy in quarantine, raising major questions over some of President Trump’s hoped-for election year international breakthroughs.
Here is a quick rundown:
- Future North Korean peace talks are stalled as President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un deal with their domestic health crises.
- The U.S. and China are trading accusations over the handling of the COVID-19 crisis, casting a shadow of a far-reaching trade deal between the two economic superpowers.
- U.S. military deployments, and the prospects for a major drawdown of American forces in Afghanistan, has been complicated by travel restrictions and the need for quarantines. Major U.S. military exercises are being scaled back, postponed or called off altogether.
- Trade deals with the European Union and post-Brexit Britain have been pushed to the back burner.
- Little movement is expected on President Trump’s just-released Israeli-Palestinian peace deal, as Middle East powers deal with the virus pandemic.
- Iran, one of the countries hardest hit by the virus, may find its economic and military power sapped as it tries to confront the U.S. and its allies.
- U.S. officials announced that this year’s G-7 summit , a symbol of the power of the world’s leading industrial nations, will be held by videoconference this year.
