President Joe Biden promised “relentless diplomacy” to address global challenges like climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic in his first speech at the United Nations on Tuesday.
“Our security, our prosperity and our very freedoms are interconnected, in my view, as never before,” he said. “And so, I believe we must work together as never before.”
Biden described the world as beginning a “decisive decade” and standing “at an inflection point in history,” where the extent of international cooperation will determine how many lives are saved from disease and environmental crises.
The speech was intended to reassure allies of the United States’ commitment to global institutions after former President Trump spent four years sowing frustration with his “America first” approach to foreign policy.
“We’re back at the table in international forums,” Biden said.
However, the speech comes as controversies weaken some of Washington’s key relationships. Biden has faced criticism over his administration’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan after two decades of war, and he upset France by pursuing a separate defense agreement with Australia and Britain.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the spats don’t mean that Biden isn’t committed to stronger ties.
“Reestablishing alliances doesn’t mean you won’t have disagreements,” she said Monday. “That is not the bar for having an alliance and an important partnership. That has never been, and it’s not currently.”
Biden defended his decision to remove U.S. troops from Afghanistan, where the Taliban swiftly regained control of the country.
“U.S. military power must be our tool of last resort, not our first,” he said. “And it should not be used as an answer to every problem we see around the world.”
The White House is also trying to arrange a phone call between Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron after diplomatic ties devolved in the last week. Although France had planned to sell submarines to Australia as part of a massive defense contract, the arrangement fell apart after the U.S. and Britain cut their own deal to supply Australia with nuclear submarine technology, leaving the French out of the picture.
French officials reacted to the pact — known as AUKUS, an acronym of the three countries’ names — with fierce indignation, and recalled the country’s ambassadors from Washington and Canberra.
Tensions between the U.S. and China in that region are causing concern around the globe. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told The Associated Press that the U.S. and China must fix their “completely dysfunctional” relationship before the world is divided between two competing superpowers. He said problems like pandemics and climate change “cannot be solved without constructive relations within the international community and mainly among the superpowers.”
Biden said he would work to ensure “we do not tip from responsible competition to conflict.”
“We are not seeking a new cold war, or a world divided into rigid blocs,” he said. “The United States is ready to work with any nation that steps up and pursues peaceful resolution to shared challenges, even if we have intense disagreements in other areas.”
Biden has other international engagements on his schedule this week. He’s participating Wednesday in a virtual COVID-19 conference, where he said he’ll announce “additional commitments” and push for more vaccines for poor countries.
While the U.S. is preparing to distribute booster shots so some eligible Americans can receive a third dose of vaccine, most people around the world have yet to get inoculated.
On Friday, Biden is hosting the first in-person summit of the Quad, another partnership focused on the Indo-Pacific. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison are scheduled to participate at the White House.
