Title : To Trump, Human Rights Concerns Are Often a Barrier to Trade
link : To Trump, Human Rights Concerns Are Often a Barrier to Trade
To Trump, Human Rights Concerns Are Often a Barrier to Trade
Donald Trump meets with Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud |
As he said that at a news conference, Mr. Tillerson was standing next to the Saudi foreign minister, Adel al-Jubeir, who represents a government that does not guarantee free speech or many other rights. When Mr. Tillerson turned to leave, a reporter asked if he had anything to say about human rights in Saudi Arabia. The secretary departed without answering.
President Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia underscored the calculation he and his foreign policy advisers have made when it comes to questions of human rights around the world.
Mr. Trump and his team made clear they are willing to publicly overlook repression in places like Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states whose leaders are meeting here this weekend — as long as they are allies in areas the president considers more important, namely security and economics.
To the president and his advisers, human rights concerns can be an impediment to the flow of commerce between countries and a barrier to beneficial partnerships for the United States. In their view, trade equals jobs and prosperity, and concern about human rights too often backfires, getting in the way of efforts by the United States government to increase all three.
As they see it, the big mistake that President Barack Obama made was to publicly shame countries rather than to first build working relationships based on common interests. Only then, they say, can the president privately raise human rights concerns. Aides point to Mr. Trump’s success in persuading Egypt’s president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, to release an American aid worker.
“We are not here to lecture,” Mr. Trump planned to say in a speech here on Sunday, according to excerpts released by the White House. “We are not here to tell other people how to live, what to do, who to be, or how to worship. Instead, we are here to offer partnership — based on shared interests and values — to pursue a better future for us all.”
Mr. Tillerson outlined the approach during a speech this month to State Department employees that distinguished between American values and American interests. “If we condition too heavily that others must adopt this value that we’ve come to over a long history of our own, it really creates obstacles to our ability to advance our national security interests, our economic interests,” he said.
“It doesn’t mean that we don’t advocate for and aspire to freedom, human dignity and the treatment of people the world over. We do,” he added. “But that doesn’t mean that’s the case in every situation.”
In Iran’s case, pushing on human rights is an easy decision, since the Trump administration sees little cost. Iran has emerged as one of the top two or three foreign adversaries of the new president, and he is not seeking economic or security ties with Tehran that could be jeopardized.
In Saudi Arabia, on the other hand, Mr. Trump sees an economic partner and the anchor of a Sunni Arab alliance to counter Iranian influence in the region. He announced $110 billion in arms sales to Saudi Arabia on Saturday as well as billions of dollars’ worth of business deals.
But the Saudi human rights record is no better than Iran’s. By some measures, it is worse. Iran just completed an election for president, albeit a flawed one, for an office subordinate to the theocratic supreme leader. Saudi Arabia is ruled by an absolute monarchy that does not meaningfully share power or even allow women to drive.
➤ Click here to read the full article
Source: The New York Times, Peter Baker, Michael D. Shear, May 20, 2017
⚑ | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com.
Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! DONATE!
Thus articles To Trump, Human Rights Concerns Are Often a Barrier to Trade
that is all articles To Trump, Human Rights Concerns Are Often a Barrier to Trade This time, hopefully can provide benefits to you all. Okay, see you in another article post.
You are now reading the article To Trump, Human Rights Concerns Are Often a Barrier to Trade the link address https://allnewsinformationtime.blogspot.com/2017/05/to-trump-human-rights-concerns-are.html
0 Response to "To Trump, Human Rights Concerns Are Often a Barrier to Trade"
Post a Comment