Foreign leaders jostle for meetings with Trump and Harris, even as Biden ramps up his diplomacy
CNN
Foreign dignitaries descending on this week’s United Nations General Assembly are looking to take advantage of a choice opportunity to sound out the next leader of the free world, seeking early clues where US foreign policy is heading next.
Foreign dignitaries descending on this week’s United Nations General Assembly are looking to take advantage of a choice opportunity to sound out the next leader of the free world, seeking early clues where US foreign policy is heading next. The most sought-after meeting this week may be an audience with one or both of the candidates running for the White House. Even as President Joe Biden is busy himself with an intensive stretch of diplomatic engagements – including meetings at his home in Delaware, on the margins of the UN talks and an upcoming foreign trip – attention on the world stage is also turning to Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump. Each candidate is looking to cultivate their own diplomatic relationships in the final stretch of the campaign, seizing on this week’s UN meetings as an opportunity for talks that illustrate their divergent worldviews. So far, only one leader appears set to meet both Harris and Trump next week: Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky, who is making an urgent appeal to both candidates, along with Biden, for sustained help in combatting Russia’s invasion. Harris, meanwhile, is set to hold talks in Washington with the United Arab Emirates’ president on Monday. And Trump has said he plans to talk this week with India’s prime minister. Official and unofficial representatives for Harris and Trump have fielded requests from dozens of countries reaching out in hopes of setting up a meeting, multiple US officials said. Some countries have even offered to accommodate or change their schedules to lock in a meeting.
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