Biden challenges UN to act together on pandemic, climate change
Written by ABC AUDIO on September 21, 2021
(NEW YORK) — President Joe Biden on Tuesday delivered his first speech as president to the United Nations General Assembly, telling diplomats that they were meeting at a moment “intermingled with great pain and extraordinary possibility.”
He pitched his vision for America’s return to the world stage — in sharp contrast with years of bellicosity from his predecessor, President Donald Trump — in which Biden said the U.S. would helm the response to the coronavirus pandemic and the climate crisis, and put behind decades of conflict in favor of diplomacy and partnership.
The world, he said, stood “at an inflection point in history,” saying that, “to fight this pandemic, we need a collective act of science and political will.”
“Today, many of our greatest concerns cannot be solved or even addressed through the force of arms,” Biden said. “Bombs and bullets cannot defend against COVID-19, or its future variants.”
His remarks were a laundry list of his goals — with some of the strongest words reserved for the climate crisis — that largely glossed over recent tensions with allies regarding the U.S. pullout from Afghanistan.
“We’ve ended 20 years of conflict in Afghanistan,” Biden said, “and as we close this period of relentless war, we’re opening a new era of relentless diplomacy of using the power of our development aid to invest in new ways of lifting people up around the world.”
He did not even making passing reference to a recently announced defense partnership with Australia and the United Kingdom aimed at curbing China’s influence on in the Indo-Pacific region, which led Australia to nix a major defense deal with France. That, in turn, prompted France to recall its ambassador from the U.S. and express its displeasure with Biden.
After his remarks, Biden planned to meet with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison at noon before departing for Washington, where he’ll host British Prime Minister Boris Johnson at the White House late in the afternoon, according to the White House.
The meetings come amid a diplomatic spat with France, which has expressed displeasure with Biden for a just announced defense partnership with Australia and United Kingdom — which led to Australia nixing a major defense deal with France for nuclear-powered submarine technology.
Administration officials said Biden was trying to set up a phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron, too.
Biden’s Tuesday morning speech kicked off a week of global engagements. The White House said Biden hoped to turn the page from conflict to global cooperation and competition.
As the president implored countries to “work together as never before,” he tried to tamp down fears over the United States’ increasing competition with China.
The day before, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres warned the U.S. and China to avoid a new Cold War and urged them to fix their “completely dysfunctional relationship.”
On Tuesday, Biden told delegates — without referencing China by name: “We are not seeking a new Cold War or a world divided into rigid blocks.”
He said common action was needed to deal with climate change, a crisis he noted was “borderless.”
“Will we meet the threat of challenging climate, the challenging climate we’re all feeling, already ravaging every part of our world with extreme weather, or will we suffer the merciless march of ever more of ever-worsening droughts and floods, more intense fires and hurricanes, longer heat waves, and rising seas?” he said.
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