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Antonio Lacerda

RIO DE JANEIRO — President Joe Biden, on one of his last days headlining an international summit, attempted to shore up support for Ukraine’s war against Russia and pressure Hamas to accept a cease-fire deal with Israel, hoping to put two of his biggest foreign policy crises on a better footing before leaving office.

Arriving for the first session of the Group of 20 summit here, Biden motioned around the room to allies and adversaries — many of whom are steeling themselves for major shifts in U.S. policy when President-elect <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/donald-trump/" target="_blank" class="contextual_link">Donald Trump</a> takes office — and urged them to back Ukraine in its war against Russia.

The war in Ukraine has been a primary focus for Biden since Russia’s invasion in February 2022, and its outcome may be one of his defining foreign policy legacies. Biden initially managed to rally much of the world to back Ukraine, but Kyiv has struggled as support has fallen in the U.S. and globally. Soon, many of Biden’s efforts in that conflict could be reversed by Trump.

“The United States strongly supports Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Biden said. “Everyone around this table, in my view, should as well.” He added, “And by the way, Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine led to the highest recorded food prices in all of history.”

In another sign that he is trying to bolster Ukraine before leaving office, Biden recently authorized Kyiv to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/11/17/ukraine-russia-north-korea-atacms/" target="_blank">use long-range weapons</a> supplied by the United States for limited strikes inside Russia, after long resisting such permission.

Among those in the room Monday were Chinese President Xi Jinping — whom Biden <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/11/16/biden-xi-meet-one-last-time/" target=_blank>urged Saturday</a> to stop supporting Russia’s war effort — and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who was representing his country because President Vladimir Putin decided not to attend.

Biden also mentioned the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/israel-hamas-war/" target="_blank" class="contextual_link">Israel-Gaza war</a>, which has been a vexing issue for the president for over a year. He has struggled to find a balance between supporting Israel’s right to defend itself after Hamas’s attack on Oct. 7, 2023, and the growing humanitarian crisis created by Israel’s incursion in the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/10/09/gaza-strip-israel-hamas-explained/" target="_blank" class="contextual_link">Gaza Strip</a>.

“Israel has a right to defend itself after the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust,” Biden said. “But how it defends itself, even as Hamas cruelly hides behind civilians, matters a great deal.”

He added, “We’re going to keep pushing to accelerate a cease-fire deal that ensures Israel’s security and brings hostages home and ends the suffering of the Palestinian people and children. I ask everyone here to increase their pressure on Hamas, which is currently refusing this deal.”

Biden’s appeals in a sense highlighted his diminishing ability to affect the two wars that have engulfed much of his presidency, given that he is leaving office in two months. Both conflicts have become far longer and bloodier than Biden hoped, as Russia continues its offensive in Ukraine and a cease-fire in Gaza<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/09/07/biden-ceasefire-gaza/" target=_blank> remains elusive</a>.

Trump has signaled a very different approach to both conflicts. The president-elect and his circle have suggested that they are far more sympathetic to Russia and are even less willing than Biden to rein in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Jon Finer, Biden’s deputy national security adviser, responded Monday to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/11/18/russia-atacms-ukraine-war-permission/" target="_blank">an assertion by the Kremlin</a> that letting Ukraine use long-range weapons to strike Russia would “add fuel to the fire and further inflame tensions around this conflict.”

“The fire was lit by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” Finer told reporters, while declining to confirm Biden’s authorization of the long-range attacks. “So I think this notion of ‘fuel on the fire’ is frankly a side issue to the main issue, which is Russia waging a war of aggression across a sovereign border into Ukraine and continuing to do so.”

Finer pointed to the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/10/29/north-korea-elite-troops-russia-ukraine-war/" target=_blank>deployment of North Korean forces</a> in Russia and cited “a major escalation in terms of an <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/11/17/russia-ukraine-war-missile-drone-attack-energy/" target=_blank>aerial attack on infrastructure</a> across Ukraine over the last 24 hours.” He added, “So I would put the question back to Russia about who’s actually putting fuel on the fire here. I don’t think it’s the Ukrainians.”

But even as he declined to confirm that Biden had authorized Ukraine’s use of American-made long-range weapons for strikes inside Russia, Finer elaborated on the potential rationale for such a decision.

“The United States has been clear throughout this conflict that we will make our policy decisions based on the circumstances we identify on the battlefield,” Finer said. “If there are circumstances that evolve and change, we will evolve and change, meet them, and allow the Ukrainians to continue to defend their territory and their sovereignty.”

Finer declined to say whether Biden raised the topic of the long-range missiles when he <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/11/13/trump-biden-white-house-capitol-hill/" target="_blank">met with Trump</a> last week.

Ricardo Moraes

As Biden traveled to the site of Monday’s G-20 meetings in Rio de Janeiro, Brazilians lined the street, many of them flying Chinese flags. In the distance, the famous statue of Christ the Redeemer could be seen from the motorcade route.

Biden held several one-on-one meetings with heads of state, including Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and newly elected president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum.

A White House summary of Biden’s meeting with Trudeau did not mention any specific discussion of Trump, but it noted that “the two leaders agreed that strengthening democracy and rule of law were essential to the prosperity and success of North America.”

Biden and Trudeau showed up late to a photo session with the world leaders on a platform with Brazil’s Sugarloaf mountain providing an iconic backdrop, and they arrived<b> </b>just after the other leaders were dispersing. They were joined by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who also missed the group photo but came over to speak with Biden and Trudeau.

A senior U.S. official told reporters that the leaders missed the photo because “due to logistical issues, they took the photo early before all the leaders arrived.” The episode did not reflect an effort by Biden to avoid a photo with Lavrov, said the official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter.

Biden and his team have at times during the trip alluded to the short time he has left in office and the transition to a second Trump presidency, which Biden had made every effort to head off.

Finer did not directly address questions about how limited Biden’s influence is at the moment. “We have a system that’s fundamentally predicated on one president at a time. President Biden is that president,” he said. “He will be handing off power in January, and it’ll be up to the new administration to decide what to do with it.”

As he closed his remarks to his counterparts on Monday, Biden also referred the window closing on his half-century in political life.

“As you know, this is my last G-20 summit,” Biden said. “We’ve made progress together, but I urge you to keep going. I’m sure you will, regardless of my urging or not.”

White House Correspondents' Association's Aldo Beckman Award for Overall Excellence in White House Coverage, 2023

Gerald R. Ford Journalism Award for Distinguished Reporting on the Presidency, 2021

White House Correspondents' Association's Merriman Smith Award, recognizing presidential news coverage under deadline pressure, 2016

Finalist for the Livingston Award for Young Journalists for national reporting, 2014

Everett McKinley Dirksen Award for Distinguished Reporting of Congress, 2013, "Broken City" series

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Matt Viser is a White House reporter for The Washington Post. He joined The Post in October 2018, covering the midterms and the 2020 presidential election before moving over to the White House to cover President Biden's administration. He was previously deputy chief of the Washington bureau for the Boston Globe.

Matt Viser

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G20 leaders' summit kicks off in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - 18 Nov 2024

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