As Election Nears, Foreign Leaders Fear ‘a Vacuum’ in American Leadership

President Biden hosted his final pre-election international visitor in the Oval Office, where the talk focused on the Middle East and Europe. But uncertainty in the United States hung over the meeting.

Without much attention, President Biden this week hosted his last foreign leader in the Oval Office before Tuesday’s election. They discussed the wars in the Middle East and Europe and plotted ways to work together to defeat aggression and alleviate suffering.

But the subtext of this final pre-election meeting was a geopolitical security concern of another sort, one that went unmentioned in the official record of the session but hung over it throughout. Will America still be leading in the world after next Tuesday? And if so, in what direction?

Mr. Biden’s foreign visitor happened to be President Nikos Christodoulides of the Republic of Cyprus, a small island nation in the eastern Mediterranean that gets no attention on the campaign trail but that could play an important role for whoever is the next president. Cyprus, once a financial haven for Russians, has been a key focus of the effort to sever Moscow from the West while also serving as an important conduit for humanitarian aid to Gaza.

The two leaders “had an in-depth discussion on a range of foreign policy issues of mutual interest,” including the Russian war on Ukraine and Israel’s war against Hamas and Hezbollah, according to the summary released by the White House. Mr. Biden praised Cyprus for its “support for the maritime humanitarian corridor” delivering thousands of tons of food and other aid to Gaza.

In an interview after the session, though, Mr. Christodoulides expressed the same concern heard often in Europe and other parts of the world about what he expects to be a volatile period to follow Tuesday’s vote and what it would mean for the international order.

“There is always a fear that you could have an America stepping back, a kind of seclusion and isolation,” Mr. Christodoulides said. “We’ve seen it in the past. That’s the main concern because the region is in turmoil right now. It’s extremely dangerous.”

While he said he was confident that Mr. Biden and his team would “continue to engage” until the last day of his administration, he noted that the transition to a new president would introduce fresh uncertainty. “In a way, there’s a vacuum,” he said. “You don’t know in two months what is going to happen. It’s a very fragile situation.”

The two leaders talked about the path to a possible cease-fire in Lebanon even as two senior Biden administration envoys, Brett McGurk and Amos Hochstein, were about to leave for Israel and William J. Burns, the C.I.A. director, was to head to Egypt.

Mr. Christodoulides, who speaks regularly with the leaders of Israel and other countries in the region and notes that Cyprus is just a 17-minute flight from Lebanon, expressed cautious optimism that a cease-fire in that country might be possible in the next two weeks. If one can be brokered, then he said he hoped it would lead to momentum for a cease-fire in Gaza as well.

A possible deal would call for a two-month halt to hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, during which both sides would pull back from the Lebanese border monitored by the U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon called UNIFIL.

“We’re talking with all stakeholders,” Mr. Christodoulides said. “In a number of cases, we convey messages from one side to the other. The Americans know about this. They’re using Cyprus.”

Cyprus, a member of the European Union, has also been an important part of the U.S.-led effort to help Ukraine repel Russian invaders. Long seen as a leading haven for Russian oligarchs and their money, Cyprus has worked to cut off the flow from Moscow and tighten banking regulation. The F.B.I. has helped the island’s anti-money laundering agency and financial intelligence unit. While Russians and Belarusians once represented one-third of Cyprus bank customers, Russians are down to 1.5 percent now, according to Cypriot officials.

The island, which has 1.3 million citizens mostly of Greek heritage, remains mired in its own decades-old divisions, with the northern part of the island recognized as a separate republic only by Turkey. Mr. Biden has sought over the years to help settle the Cyprus dispute, though it remains unresolved.

Mr. Christodoulides is the first president of Cyprus to visit the White House since 1996, a point of pride for his government. Speaking with reporters during their meeting, Mr. Biden said he was still “optimistic” about prospects for a “reunited Cyprus” in the future.

Like other European leaders, Mr. Christodoulides is watching the American elections closely. If the United States ultimately pulls back its support of Ukraine, he said, the situation could be inflamed.

“The Americans, they can’t do it without the Europeans and the Europeans can’t do it without the Americans,” he said. “So as long as we have a common policy, yes,” success in Ukraine is possible. “If we don’t, then we have an issue.”

Our Coverage of the Middle East Crisis

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• Stikes in Gaza: The Israeli military hit a town in northern Gaza for the third time in just over a week, striking a residential building and killing dozens of people, Gazan officials said.
• Israel Bans UNRWA: Israel’s Parliament passed two laws that could threaten the work of the main U.N. agency that aids Palestinians by barring its operations in the country. Here’s a look at the implications of the laws.
• Arrests in Yemen: The Iran-backed Houthi militia has detained dozens of Yemenis linked to the U.S. Embassy or international organizations recently, alarming diplomats and aid workers in the country.
• Iran’s Nuclear Push: With Iran’s Russian-produced air defenses in smoldering piles after Israel’s strikes, experts fear the Iranian leaders may conclude they have only one defense left: racing for an atomic weapon.