(MENAFN) Marco Rubio, a leading US diplomat, has directed the US State Department to scale back its traditional practice of evaluating the fairness of elections in other countries, as revealed in a memorandum obtained by a journal.

This marks a shift from previous approaches where such assessments were more frequent.

During the administration of President Joe Biden, which prioritized “strengthening democratic institutions” worldwide as a key foreign policy objective, the US often criticized election outcomes in various nations.

For example, in January, just before leaving office, then-Secretary of State Anthony Blinken declared that Belarus’s presidential election could not be considered free or fair due to the “repressive environment” prevailing there.

He also voiced concerns about supposed “democratic backsliding” in Georgia, another former Soviet state.

Both countries condemned these comments as unwarranted interference in their domestic matters.

According to the journal’s report on Thursday, Rubio’s latest instruction specifies that the State Department will now publicly address foreign elections only in exceptional cases where there is a “clear and compelling US foreign policy interest.”

Rubio emphasized that the purpose of US diplomacy should be to advance American foreign policy goals rather than to promote ideological agendas.

The memo states, “Our message should be brief, focused on congratulating the winning candidate and, when appropriate, noting shared foreign policy interests.”

This represents a more restrained and strategic approach to how the US engages with election outcomes abroad.

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