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Burns suggested that diplomats might see a new appeal to time saved on travel and the challenge of coordinating schedules. Much as employers are reconsidering whether their employees can work from home more regularly after the pandemic, Mr. Blinken had signaled a clear break with the Trump era and a return to vigorous multilateral diplomacy. Burns said that the Biden team had suffered little by staying home he argued that early public remarks by Mr. You can get a lot more done on short order than you did before.” No one wants to live in this world permanently,” said Nicholas Burns, a former under secretary of state and NATO ambassador. “Of course, it’s always better to be face-to-face with your foreign counterparts. Blinken spoke by phone last week with the foreign ministers of Australia, India and Japan - who together with the United States make up what is known as the Quad, a group implicitly aligned against China - he was able to connect with counterparts tens of thousands of miles away without disruptive travel time and jet lag. State Department officials say that while it may not be ideal, there are benefits to virtual diplomacy. Lenderking’s travels were justified by the urgency of relief for Yemen’s humanitarian disaster, and because he did not require a large retinue. In a reminder of the complications of Covid-era travel, he underwent an obligatory quarantine period after returning from his last trip to the Gulf this month. Lenderking, who departed Monday for his second trip to the Persian Gulf region in pursuit of a Yemen peace deal. One exception is the State Department’s envoy for war-ravaged Yemen, Timothy A. Pompeo’s director of policy planning tested positive for the coronavirus, aggravating allies over their potential exposure. After returning from meetings in London and Paris in October, for instance, Mr.
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And it by no means halted travel, which came with predictable results. But that travel agenda was part of an overall business-as-usual ethos toward the virus that health experts criticized. Blinken’s predecessor, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who, along with other senior State Department and White House officials during the Trump administration, slowed the pace of their travel during the pandemic. The current stasis is notable in comparison with Mr. “That’s where the actual details are ironed out.” “You think of all the pictures from the summits, where the leaders are leaning over one another,” Ms. Missing out on the events in person “is a lost opportunity at this moment of reinvigoration for the trans-Atlantic relationship in particular,” she said, not least because of the many side meetings that occur around the Munich event. In ordinary times, those events might have been “part of a sweeping Europe trip to include the Munich Security Conference and a trip to NATO,” said Cathryn Clüver Ashbrook, the executive director of The Future of Diplomacy Project at Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. On Monday, he held a video call with European Union foreign affairs ministers. Blinken was, for instance, unable to make an in-person appearance at the annual Munich Security Conference, a forum staged virtually last week for American and European elites to speak, schmooze, strategize and affirm trans-Atlantic bonds. But diplomats say proximity breeds a familiarity that cannot be replicated, fueled by body language, eye contact and handshakes, shared meals, cultural events, exchanged gifts and the serendipity of hallway encounters, outdoor walks and other moments away from neurotic, agenda-clutching aides. Plenty of business can be done through phone calls and video meetings. That, former government officials and diplomacy experts say, is an undeniable handicap, especially at a moment of such flux in the world. Blinken currently has no travel planned, and a senior administration official said he might not take to the air before late March - though even that timeline is uncertain. Blinken has been vaccinated against the coronavirus, State Department officials say they are being cautious about his foreign travel, which involves an entourage of aides, security personnel, support staff and journalists, many of whom would be at risk of contracting or spreading the virus. Blinken and President Biden say the United States faces a herculean challenge in restoring bonds with key allies, re-establishing American leadership against rivals like China and Russia, and confronting threats such as climate change and a nuclear Iran.Īlthough Mr. Behind the jokes, however, there is frustration.