Analysis: Jakub Graca; graphic design: Natalia Matiaszczyk; collected data: Ksawery Stawiński
The year 2024 saw significantly less foreign travel by Joe Biden compared to 2023, largely due to his re-election campaign and focus on the presidential race. His first foreign trip of the year did not take place until June, and the majority of his overseas visits in 2024 occurred after the November 5 presidential election.
Among the most frequently visited countries during Biden’s term—and particularly in the last two years—were key allies in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Notably, Biden became the first U.S. president since George W. Bush to visit Ukraine, making the trip in 2023. While every president since Bush has visited conflict zones (Bush, Obama, and Trump all traveled to Afghanistan and Iraq), Biden’s visit to Ukraine stood out as especially perilous. The trip occurred during the active phase of a conflict involving one of the United States’ two primary adversaries and lacked the enhanced security measures available in Afghanistan or Iraq. Biden traveled to Ukraine aboard an unarmored train from Przemyśl to Kyiv rather than a military aircraft. Another notable visit to a war-affected country was his trip to Israel in October 2023.
Biden became the first U.S. president since Jimmy Carter not to visit the People’s Republic of China, reflecting the escalating strategic rivalry between Washington and Beijing. He met with Xi Jinping three times during his presidency: in November 2022 in Indonesia, November 2023 in California, and November 2024 in Peru. Biden also did not visit Russia, as such a trip was ruled out due to the ongoing war in Ukraine, which began in 2014. His only meeting with Vladimir Putin during his presidency took place on neutral ground in Switzerland in June 2021, more than six months before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The last U.S. president to visit Russia was Barack Obama, before the 2014 annexation of Crimea.
Africa was an interesting destination for Biden, as the continent is increasingly becoming a focal point of U.S.-China rivalry. Biden made history as the first U.S. president to visit Angola and Cape Verde. His trip to Luanda was originally planned for two months earlier but was postponed so he could remain in the United States during Hurricane Milton, which struck during the critical final phase of the presidential election campaign. The last U.S. president to visit Africa before Biden was Barack Obama.
Biden’s planned visit to Papua New Guinea in May 2023 was canceled at the last minute due to ongoing congressional negotiations over the public debt limit. Oceania is another region of increasing significance in the U.S.-China rivalry. Biden also became only the second U.S. president, after Barack Obama, to visit Cambodia.
During his presidency, Joe Biden made only slightly more foreign trips than Donald Trump and visited only a handful of additional countries compared to his predecessor. Biden’s travel schedule might have been more extensive if not for his decision to refrain from international trips during the initial months of 2021 due to the pandemic.
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