Obama embraces letter diplomacy

President Obama appears to have a new favorite diplomatic tool: letter writing.

Diplomatic breakthroughs on climate change and a slew of other priorities materialized, after Obama wrote Chinese leader Xi Jinping a letter earlier this year, senior administration officials said Wednesday.

{mosads}News of the personal note to the Chinese leader came less than a week after revelations that Obama also recently sent letters to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in pursuit of U.S. diplomatic goals.

The letter to Jinping, the White House said, was sent in January and detailed the mutual goals Obama hoped to accomplish with the Chinese.

The missive helped lay the groundwork for what the president described as “a historic agreement” to curb climate change, under which the United States will reduce its carbon emissions between 26 percent and 28 percent of its 2005 level. China, in response, says it will peak its carbon dioxide emissions around 2030 and increase its use of renewable energy.

Obama followed up with a meeting with China’s chief climate negotiator at the United Nations earlier this autumn, and Obama and Xi spent time hammering out the final details Tuesday night.

The leaders similarly worked to the last minute to complete a deal limiting tariffs on high-tech products sold between the two countries. And, aides said, it wasn’t until last week that U.S. and Chinese officials completed a deal that allows students and tourists traveling between the two countries to obtain visas that could last as long as 10 years — a dramatic increase from the yearlong visas previously issued by both countries.

The pair were also able to strike agreement on greater military-to-military coordination in a bid to de-escalate ongoing maritime disputes with some of China’s neighbors.

Obama’s letter writing seems to have also paid dividends in North Korea, where James Clapper, the nation’s highest-ranking intelligence official, presented officials with a personal note from Obama recognizing him as the president’s representative. In exchange, Pyongyang agreed to release two Americans who had been jailed for alleged crimes against the state.

“It was a brief letter that simply stated that Director Clapper was traveling as the president’s personal envoy with the expressed purpose of bringing these two Americans home,” a senior administration official said, calling the note “short and to the particular point.”

That effort came days after reports emerged that Obama personally wrote the Iranian ayatollah in a bid to build momentum for the ongoing nuclear talks and mutual efforts combatting the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

Negotiators have until Nov. 24 to strike a deal on Iran’s nuclear weapons program in exchange for the removal of tough economic sanctions that have damaged the Iranian economy.