foreign affairs

plural noun

Updated on: 11 Apr 2018

Definition of foreign affairs

: matters having to do with international relations and with the interests of the home country in foreign countries

Recent Examples of foreign affairs from the Web

Is his focus on foreign affairs an attempt to distract from crises at home?

— frank rich, Daily Intelligencer, "Trump Only Knows Chaos," 5 Apr. 2018
The former president, his aides said, tended to focus on whether a strategy was financially sustainable over time, while the current president views foreign affairs as a strict balance sheet.

— mark landler, New York Times, "They Have Many Differences, but on Syria, Trump Seems Much Like Obama," 4 Apr. 2018
Israel Radio cited Rwanda’s minister of state for foreign affairs, Olivier Nduhungirehe, as denying his government had ever reached an agreement with Israel to take in African migrants.

— amy teibel, Bloomberg.com, "Netanyahu Backtracks on African Migrant Plan, Then Shifts Again," 2 Apr. 2018
The movie seems to have so much to say about the United States’ meddling in foreign affairs to continually ludicrously effects.

— jacob kastrenakes, The Verge, "New trailers: Westworld season 2, The Handmaid’s Tale, and more," 31 Mar. 2018
Slutsky is the chairman of the State Duma's foreign affairs committee, one of the country's most influential lawmakers.

— nataliya vasilyeva, chicagotribune.com, "Russian presidential candidate accused of groping television reporter," 23 Mar. 2018
La Moderna, Mexico’s largest pasta company, celebrated the grand opening of the 150,000-square-foot facility Tuesday with Gov. Greg Abbott and Mexican dignitaries like Luis Videgaray Caso, Mexican secretary of foreign affairs.

— nicholas sakelaris, star-telegram, "Carb alert: This $50 million plant in Cleburne can pump out 4,000 tons of pasta a month | Fort Worth Star-Telegram," 21 Mar. 2018
The panel decided Wednesday that the groping accusations against Leonid Slutsky, head of the State Duma's foreign affairs committee, were unfounded.

— Fox News, "Russian lawmaker cleared of sexual harassment accusations," 21 Mar. 2018
Human rights in foreign affairs, compassion for the disadvantaged in domestic affairs, and truth in public statements are objects only of disdain.

— rachel aviv, The New Yorker, "Cambridge Analytica and a Moral Reckoning in Silicon Valley," 21 Mar. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'foreign affairs.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.