Biden’s U.N. address to rally allies, adversaries
Diplomatic friction creates ‘crisis of trust’
President Joe Biden begins his first visit to the U.N. General Assembly ready to make the case to world leaders that after closing the book on 20 years of war, the U.S. aims to rally allies and adversaries to work together on a slew of crises.
The president faced a healthy measure of skepticism when he arrived in New York on Monday to start a week of high-level diplomacy.
Eight months into his presidency, Biden has been out of sync with allies on the chaotic ending to the U.S. war in Afghanistan. He has faced differences over how to go about sharing coronavirus vaccines with the developing world and over pandemic travel restrictions and the best way to respond to military and economic moves by China.
Biden also finds himself in the midst of a fresh diplomatic spat with France, the United States’ oldest ally, after announcing plans — along with Britain — to equip Australia with nuclear-powered submarines.
The move is expected to give Australia improved capabilities to patrol the Pacific amid growing concern about the Chinese military’s increasingly aggressive tactics, but it upended a French defense contract worth at least $66 billion to sell diesel-powered submarines to Australia.
French Foreign Minister Jean-yves Le Drian said Monday there’s a “crisis of trust” with the U.S. as a result of the episode.
Ahead of Biden’s arrival, EU Council President Charles Michel strongly criticized the Biden administration for leaving Europe “out of the game in the Indo-pacific region” and ignoring the underlying elements of the trans-atlantic alliance — transparency and loyalty — in the withdrawal from Afghanistan and the announcement of the U.s.-u.k.-australia alliance.
Despite such differences, Biden is looking to use his Tuesday address to the General Assembly as well as a series of one-on-one and larger meetings with world leaders this week to make the case for American leadership on the world stage.
“There are points of disagreement,” White House press secretary Jen
Psaki said. “But the larger point here, and what you’ll hear the president talk about tomorrow, is that we are committed to those alliances and that always requires work from every president, from every global leader.”
Biden met Monday evening with U.N. Secretary-general Antonio Guterres. In brief remarks at the start of their meeting, Biden praised the international body for never being “short on ambition.”
In an interview ahead of the meeting, the secretary-general told The Associated Press that he was concerned about the “completely dysfunctional” U.s.-china relationship and that it could lead to a new cold war. Psaki said the administration disagreed with the assessment, adding that the U.s.-china relationship was “one not of conflict but of competition.” In other developments:
■ It was a United Nations speech that got attention like few others — a plug for vaccines, young people and the earth’s well-being from superstar K-pop band BTS. “Every choice we make is the beginning of change, not the end,” said RM, the band’s leader.
■ British Prime Minister Boris Johnson stressed the importance of coronavirus vaccines during a meeting with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who says he has not been inoculated. The two men met Monday on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.
■ Leaders, government ministers and other dignitaries from more than 120 countries and international organizations headed to ground zero Monday for a U.N. commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks.