Decisive decade for the world: Biden at UNGA

WASHINGTON: In his first speech at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) since taking office, US President Joe Biden on Tuesday said it was “a decisive decade for our world” which will “quite literally determine our futures”, as he vowed to pivot from post-9/11 conflicts and take a global leadership role on crises ranging from climate to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The high-level segment of the 76th UNGA began in New York on Tuesday.

Biden called on UN member states to work together to confront common challenges such as the climate crisis and Covid-19 and underscored his commitment to multilateralism, citing the elevation of the Quad group with India, Australia and Japan to summit-level engagement and said the Indo-Pacific was among the most consequential regions in the world.

In his maiden address at the UN general assembly, the US President defended the messy end to the Afghanistan war, said America was ready to compete with China economically and ideologically but was not seeking to relaunch another Cold War, and reaffirmed support for multilateral bodies such as the UN and World Health Organization that were attacked and abandoned by his predecessor Donald Trump.

Biden said that in his view, the world is at an “inflection point in history”. He said the US will dou

ble its financial commitment on climate aid and spend $10 billion to fight hunger.

“We’ll stand up for our allies and our friends and oppose attempts by stronger countries to dominate weaker ones, whether through changes to territory by force, economic coercion, technical exploitation or disinformation. But we’re not seeking – I’ll say it again – we are not seeking a new Cold War or a world divided into rigid blocs,” Biden said. “The United States is ready to work with any nation that steps up and pursues peaceful resolution to share challenges even if we have intense disagreement in other areas.”

Biden stressed a decidedly contrasting theme in his speech to Trump’s America First approach as he called for countries to work together. Citing the death and devastation brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic, the American President said “our shared grief is a poignant reminder that our collective future will hinge on our ability to recognise our common humanity, and to act together… I believe we must work together as never before”.

Defending his decision to end the Afghanistan war, he said: “We’ve ended 20 years of conflict in Afghanistan. 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.”

The US President has faced criticism and questions at home and abroad about the pullout of international troops from Afghanistan, including from allies and partners such as India, and of the chaotic evacuation marked by the killing of 13 US troops and about 200 Afghan civilians. Ten people were killed in a US drone strike during that period who turned out to be civilians, including seven chilto dren, and not Islamic StateKhorasan operatives as the US initially described them.

The US President went on to reiterate the importance of working together with other countries and multilateral bodies. Over the last eight months, he said, he prioritised “rebuilding our alliances, revitalizing our partnerships, and recognizing they are essential and central to America’s enduring security and prosperity”. He spoke of NATO and EU, which also faced withering criticism and harsh words from Trump.

“We elevated the Quad partnership among Australia, India, Japan and the United States to take on challenges ranging from health security to climate to emerging technologies,” Biden said of the Quad, which is scheduled to hold its first in-person summit meeting on Friday, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Australia’ Scott Morrison and Japan’s Yoshihide Suga at the White House. The first summit of the group was held virtually in March at President Biden’s initiative, elevating engagement of the group rapidly from the level of officials to ministers.

Though the US President did not name China, it formed the backdrop for chunks of his speech. Arguing that the world faced a choice between those who support western democratic values and authoritarian regimes like China, he said: “The future belongs to those who give their people the ability to breathe free, not those who seek to suffocate their people with an iron hand authoritarianism.”

“The authoritarians of the world, they seek to proclaim the end of the age of democracy, but they’re wrong.”

Overcoming global challenges “will hinge on our ability to recognize our common humanity”, Biden said.

Biden added that he remains committed to peacefully resolving a dispute with Iran over its nuclear program. He vowed to defend US ally Israel but said a two-state solution with the Palestinians is still needed but a distant goal. He said the US wants “sustained diplomacy” to resolve the crisis surrounding North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs. North Korea has rejected US overtures to engage in talks.

Discussing oppression of racial, ethnic and religious minorities, Biden singled out China’s Xinjiang region where rights groups estimate that one million Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities have been interned in camps.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who begins a second five-year term at the helm of the world body on January 1, warned earlier of the dangers of the growing gap between China and the United States, the world’s largest economies.

“I fear our world is creeping towards two different sets of economic, trade, financial and technology rules, two divergent approaches in the development of artificial intelligence - and ultimately two different military and geopolitical strategies,” Guterres said. “This is a recipe for trouble. It would be far less predictable than the Cold War.”