Harris on foreign policy: Her experience and where she stands

Now that she's running for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, here's a closer look at where Vice President Kamala Harris stands on foreign policy issues and what her experience has been so far.

Israel

In the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, Harris was initially a strong supporter of Israel's right to defend itself against Hamas -- knocking down a suggestion that the Biden administration might condition aid to the country in November, saying "we are not going to create any conditions on the support that we are giving Israel to defend itself."

But by December, Harris began wading deeper into Middle Eastern diplomacy during a trip to Dubai for a United Nations climate conference where she also met with leaders from the region; she took a more forceful tone with Israel than many other senior administration officials had done at the time -- declaring "too many innocent Palestinians have been killed" and saying the administration believes "Israel must do more to protect innocent civilians."

In a March address in Selma, Alabama, marking the anniversary of Bloody Sunday, Harris called out Israel again -- saying its government "must do more to significantly increase the flow of aid- -- no excuses" and calling on Israel to open border crossings and ensure humanitarian workers are not targeted.

In an interview published earlier this month, Harris said young Americans protesting the war in Gaza are "showing exactly what the human emotion should be" and that while she "absolutely rejects" some of their statements, she understands "the emotion behind it."

Harris doesn't have a longstanding relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as President Biden does, but she met with Israel's Benny Gantz at the White House while he was serving on the country's war cabinet in March and met with Israel's President Herzog earlier this year on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.

Harris did not travel to Israel as vice president; she has made two trips to the Middle East as vice president -- visiting the UAE both times

Doug Emoff, her husband, is the first Jewish spouse at the White House:

Ukraine

Harris has been in lockstep with President Biden on Ukraine, and vowed to support its fight against Russia for "as long as it takes" earlier this year.

Intermittently, Harris has played a prominent role in the Biden administration's response to the war in Ukraine; ahead of Russia's invasion, she led the U.S. delegation to the high-stakes 2022 Munich Security Conference and last month, she represented the Biden administration at the Summit on Peace for Ukraine in Lucerne, Switzerland.

However, during both those engagements, Harris was backed up by other members of the administration with deeper experience in foreign policy, namely Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Munich and national security adviser Jake Sullivan in Lucerne.

Harris has met Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy six times but has never traveled to Ukraine while in office.

Russia

Harris has adamantly supported NATO and said the U.S. will never retreat from its obligations to the alliance: "Our commitment to build and sustain alliances has helped America become the most powerful and prosperous country in the world … to put all of that at risk would be foolish."

She also said the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in a penal colony was a "further sign of Putin's brutality."

Harris has been sharply critical of former President Donald Trump's comments about NATO countries that don't meet the 2% defense spending benchmark, saying "the idea that the former president of the U.S. would say that he encourages a brutal dictator to invade our allies, and that the United States of America would simply stand by and watch -- no previous U.S. president, regardless of party, has bowed down to a Russian dictator before," and calling it "an example of something I just believe that the American people would never support."

China

Four of Harris' 17 trips abroad as vice president have been to East Asia and she has visited seven countries in the region as well as the DMZ between North and South Korea while in office; during these trips, she has emphasized curbing China's influence in the region and sought to promote a safe and secure Indo-Pacific.

Harris has represented the U.S. during gatherings of ASEAN and APEC, two of the most important multinational organizations in the region and met with met with dozens of Asian leaders, including the heads of all five U.S. treaty allies in the region (Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Australia and Thailand); Harris has also met with Chinese President Xi Jinping and briefly met with Chinese Premier Li Qiang in September in Jakarta.

As vice president, Harris has been critical of China's actions in the South China Sea, accusing the country of "bullying."

She has also said while the U.S. "does not invite conflict" with China, "we absolutely are prepared to and engaged in what is necessary to compete."

Central America

During the first months of her vice presidency, Harris was assigned with addressing the root causes of irregular migration through the U.S.-Mexico border.

Administration and campaign officials say Republicans have wrongly tried to brand her as Biden's "border czar."

While Harris has courted investments from the private sector to support communities in Central America, she has been criticized for what some see as a lack of engagement; as VP, she has traveled to the region only twice -- spending three days on a trip to Guatemala and Mexico in 2021 and spending a day in Honduras in 2022.

She visited the border city of El Paso, Texas, in June 2021.