The Hill: Trump's bid for foreign policy gains hits a Russian wall

The US website The Hill said that President Donald Trump's pursuit of foreign policy gains before the presidential elections hit a Russian wall of reluctance in strategic arms control talks with Moscow.

The website stated

that Moscow's recent rejection of an offer from Washington on reducing strategic weapons may have been due to their expectation that the Democratic candidate, Joe Biden, would win, and that last Friday Washington rejected a Russian counter-offer, which led to a deadlock and weakened the chances of reaching a deal before Election Day, Trump was denied an achievement that he could promote in the remaining days of the campaign.

The site added that arms control advocates were not surprised by these recent developments, saying that Trump wasted much of his term, and dealt urgently with talks about reducing these weapons only as the elections approached.

He indicated that Trump began relying on foreign policy achievements in the final stage of the presidential campaign, amid severe criticism for his handling of domestic issues such as the Corona epidemic and ethnic tensions.

According to the site, Trump promoted the withdrawal of forces from Iraq and Afghanistan and promised further cuts to fulfill his pledge to end the so-called wars forever. He also brokered agreements between Israel and both the UAE and Bahrain, which he celebrated at the White House, as well as facilitated the normalization of economic relations between Serbia and Kosovo, but And when it comes to a new, large-scale arms control agreement with Russia, as well as China, his efforts have yielded no results, and the talks now seem to have reached a dead end.

The site attributed to officials their preference that the election factor may be in Moscow’s calculations. US National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien said, "It may be like this, as many countries do, as the Russians are waiting for what will happen."

And the site commented that despite Moscow's involvement in what the US intelligence community describes as an active disinformation campaign to boost Trump's re-election prospects, Russia's rejection of Trump's offer on strategic weapons may indicate that it awaits a better deal with Biden.