Even before the start of the conflict in Ukraine, an international alliance to rally the world against a Russian special military operation came together so quickly that President Biden later marveled at the “purpose and unity found in months that we’d once taken years to accomplish, The New York Times reports.
”Now, with the conflict in its fourth month, U. S. officials are facing the disappointing reality that the powerful coalition of nations — stretching from North America across Europe and into East Asia — may not be enough to break the looming stalemate in Ukraine.
With growing urgency, the Biden administration is trying to coax or cajole countries that have declared themselves neutral in the conflict — including India, Brazil, Israel and the Gulf Arab states — to join the campaign of economic sanctions, military support and diplomatic pressure to further isolate Russia and bring a decisive end to the conflict.
So far, few if any of them have been willing, despite their partnerships with Washington on other major security matters. Mr. Biden is making an extraordinary diplomatic and political gamble this summer in planning to visit Saudi Arabia, which he had called a “pariah.”
And on Thursday, he met with President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil on the sidelines of the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles. Mr. Bolsonaro visited Moscow the week before Russia invaded Ukraine and declared “solidarity” with President Vladimir V. Putin. In Los Angeles, Mr. Bolsonaro pre-empted any push by Mr. Biden on Russia, saying that while Brazil remained open to helping end the conflict, “given our reliance on certain foreign players, we have to be cautious.”
U. S. officials acknowledge the difficulties in trying to convince countries that they can balance their own interests with the American and European drive to isolate Russia. “One of the biggest problems that we are facing today is the fence-sitter problem,” Samantha Power, the head of the U. S. Agency for International Development, said on Tuesday after giving a speech about the administration’s efforts to reinforce free speech, fair elections and other democratic systems against authoritarian leaders worldwide.
She said she was hopeful that Russian atrocities committed in Ukraine would persuade neutral states to join the coalition against Moscow, “given our collective interest in rules of the road that all of us would wish to see observed, and none of us would wish to see used against our citizens.”
Russia and its partners, notably China, have denounced the U. S. government’s efforts to expand the coalition, which in addition to European nations also includes Canada, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.
“In the modern world, it is impossible to isolate a country, especially such a huge one as Russia,” Mr. Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said on Thursday, according to state media.
