STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
For former Vice President Joe Biden, foreign policy is all about relationships.
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JOE BIDEN: You got to know the other man or woman's soul and who they are to know and to make sure they know you.
INSKEEP: Biden has a lot he wants to do on the world stage. But if he wins the presidency, the pandemic would take away one of his preferred tools - face-to-face connections with other world leaders. NPR's Scott Detrow reports.
SCOTT DETROW, BYLINE: Joe Biden is confident he can manage the increasingly tense relationship between the United States and China. His reason - his already existing relationship with its president...
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BIDEN: I've spent more time with Xi Jinping - at least before we got out - than any rural leader has. I've traveled 17,000 miles with him, the president of China.
DETROW: As chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee then as a vice president running point on big foreign policy problems like Iraq and Ukraine, Biden has spent a lot of time meeting with other world leaders. So it's ironic that as he prepares for a possible presidency, that probably isn't an option. The coronavirus pandemic likely takes travel, summits and long one-on-one meetings off the table - at least in the short term. Tony Blinken is one of Biden's top foreign policy advisers.
TONY BLINKEN: For sure, his ability to connect with other world leaders, the focus that he puts on understanding where they're coming from, what their constraints are, what their options are so that he can effectively negotiate on behalf of the United States - that does benefit tremendously from being able to be in the same place.
DETROW: Still, he says Biden can adapt.
BLINKEN: But you know, I've spent a lot of time with him over the years conducting diplomacy by telephone, conducting now diplomacy by - it'll have to be by Zoom or the equivalent. And it's doable. It's not - is it as good? No. But is it doable? Is it necessary? Yes.
DETROW: The president of the Council on Foreign Relations, Richard Haass, argues personal chemistry and relationships are a bit overrated, even for someone like Biden. He says other countries aren't thinking about charm.
RICHARD HAASS: Again, what they're going to care about is not the toasts after dinner. They're going to care about the substance of the foreign policy coming from them.
DETROW: And there's a lot on Biden's to-do list for other countries to consider. First and foremost, says Blinken, is dealing with the coronavirus.
BLINKEN: If we're fortunate, there'll be a vaccine. But then it's got to be manufactured. It's got to be distributed. And if there's no vaccine, it's going to be testing, tracing, stockpiles, safety standards.
DETROW: Last year, Biden laid out his foreign policy agenda in a big speech in New York City. A big part of it, as Biden sees things - doing cleanup work on four years of President Trump...
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BIDEN: Donald Trump's brand of American first has too often led to America alone, making it much harder to mobilize others to address the threats to our common well-being.
DETROW: Biden says he'll prioritize repairing the relationships Trump has frayed, especially with NATO allies. He wants to reenter and rework the international agreements Trump withdrew from like the Paris climate accord and the Iran nuclear deal. And Biden says he wants to confront the global rise of authoritarianism he says Trump has enabled.
The pandemic has upended the world. But Richard Haass argues it hasn't really changed any of those challenges, at least in a big way. Take China, an increasingly fraught relationship that's becoming a big campaign issue for Biden and Trump.
HAASS: This is the most important relationship of this era. It was already deteriorating before the pandemic. This deterioration has simply continued or in some ways accelerated, might have happened anyhow.
DETROW: Still, it's clear that Biden's overarching goal of reengaging with the world and doing it with the personal touch he's used for decades is going to be a challenge. Take one of his big pre-pandemic goals - hosting a big climate change summit.
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BIDEN: I would call a meeting within the first hundred days of those almost 200 nations to come to the United States.
DETROW: That probably wouldn't happen. But Blinken says one way or another, a President Biden would be engaging with other world leaders.
BLINKEN: The United States has to be - has to show up again, has to be present again. And whether that's virtually in the first instance and eventually, you know, in person remains to be seen. But we have to get back in the game.
DETROW: After all, Blinken says, people around the world have been figuring out how to connect using technology. A Biden White House, he says, would just have to do the same thing.
Scott Detrow, NPR News, Washington. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
