After elections, Biden to hit global hot spots

Vice President Biden will undertake a high-stakes foreign policy trip two weeks after the midterm elections, looking to address a trio of international challenges during stops in Turkey, Ukraine, and Morocco.

The vice president will travel to Turkey just over a month after he apologized to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for suggesting the Turks had allowed foreign fighters to cross the border into Syria to take up arms alongside the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

{mosads}”President Erdogan told me, ‘You were right. We let too many people through. So we’re trying to seal the border,’” Biden said earlier this month at Harvard University.

The White House later said Biden had “mischaracterized” Erdogan’s “private remarks.”

But tensions between the U.S. and Turkey remain fraught.

Turkey has criticized the U.S. for providing Kurdish fighters in Syria with weapons and medical supplies, equating the moves to equipping a terrorist organization. Turkey is locked in a prolonged struggle with the minority Kurds, who want to form their own state.

The U.S., meanwhile, has made clear it wants Turkey to do more to help coalition efforts against ISIS. That call has gained additional vigor as the jihadist group hammers Kobani, a Kurdish town just across the Syrian border. Human rights experts have warned that mass killings could occur if the town is completely overtaken.

The terror group could also be on the agenda in Morocco, where support for ISIS has grown in recent months. Spanish and Moroccan officials arrested nine individuals thought to have ties to the group late last month, and Morocco is thought to be among the greatest suppliers of foreign fighters to the conflict in Iraq and Syria.

The government in Morocco has also expressed concern about the spread of Ebola from West Africa, although there have been no reported cases there at present.

Biden will arrive in Ukraine just weeks before local elections in some of the country’s war-torn eastern regions. Earlier Monday, President Obama condemned pro-Russian separatists for preventing many Ukrainian citizens from exercising their democratic right to vote.

Early results show that parties loyal to President Petro Poroshenko’s reform agenda dominated the ballot and should be able to easily form a governing coalition.

“We look forward to the convening of the new parliament and the quick formation of a strong, inclusive government,” Obama said. “The United States stands ready to support the choices of the Ukrainian people and Ukraine’s new government as it enacts and implements the reforms necessary to promote further democratic development, strengthen the rule of law, and foster economic stability and growth in Ukraine.”