United States President Joe Biden delivered his first speech to the United Nations General Assembly since taking office on Tuesday. In his speech, he spoke about COVID-19, Afghanistan, reestablishing alliances, climate change, among others.

He opened his speech with grief and concern about the COVID-19 deaths and the crisis the world faces. 

“Clear and urgent choice we face…in a decade that will quite literally determine our futures. Will we work together?” he started his speech.

COVID-19

“Will we work together to save lives, defeat COVID-19 everywhere, and take the necessary stem to prepare ourselves for the next pandemic, because there will be another one. Or will we fail to harness the tools at our disposal as more virulent and dangerous variants take hold?”

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“A decisive decade for our world” which will “quite literally determine our futures,” Biden went on to say.

“We meet this year in a moment of intermingled with great pain and extraordinary possibility. We’ve lost so much to this devastating pandemic that continues to claim lives around the world and impact so much on our existence. We’re mourning more than 4.5 million people, people of every nation, from every background. Each death is an individual heartbreak,” Biden said on COVID-19’s impact on the world.

Biden pledges to work with allies

“And as the United States turns our focus to the priorities and the regions of the world like the Indo-Pacific that are most consequential today and tomorrow, we’ll do so with our allies and partners through cooperation and multilateral institutions like the United Nations to amplify our collective strength and speed, our progress for dealing with these global challenges,” Biden said.

US Army’s withdrawal from Afghanistan

“We are closing a “period of relentless war” for a “new era of relentless diplomacy“.

“Instead of continuing to fight the wars of the past, we are fixing our eyes on devoting our resources into the challenges that hold the keys to our collective future. Ending this pandemic, addressing the climate crisis, managing the shifts in global power dynamics, shaping the rules of the world on vital issues like trade, cyber and emerging technologies, and facing the threat of terrorism as it stands today,” Biden said to global leaders.

“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 around the world, of renewing and defending democracy, of proving that no matter how challenging or how complex the problems we’re going to face, government by and for the people is still the best way to deliver for all of our people,” Biden said.

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US is “back at the table in international forums”

President Joe Biden said that the United States is taking back its leadership role on international issues.

“We’re back at the table in international forums, especially the United Nations, to focus attention and to spur global action on shared challenges,” he said.

Biden talked about the engagement with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the European Union, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the “Quad” partnership with India, Australia and Japan.

“We are reengaged at the World Health Organization, and working in close partnership with Covax to deliver life-saving vaccines around the world. We rejoined the Paris climate agreement, and we’re running to retake a seat in the Human Rights Council next year at the UN.”

“As the United States seeks to rally the world to action, we will lead not just with the example of our power but, god willing, with the power of our example.”

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Climate crisis

“This year has also brought widespread death and devastation from the borderless climate crisis. The extreme weather events that we have seen in every part of the world — and you all know it and feel it — represent what the secretary-general has rightly called ‘code red for humanity,'” Biden told world leaders.

“To keep within our reach the vital goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees celsius, every nation needs to bring their highest possible ambitions to the table when we meet in Glasgow for COP26,” Biden said.

“And then we have to keep raising our collective ambition over time.”

The US President touted his administration’s steps to combat climate change, noting America’s agreement “to reduce green house gas emissions from the United States by 50% to 52% below 2005 levels by 2030.”

“And my administration is working closely with our congress to make critical investments in green infrastructure and electric vehicles that will help us lock in progress at home toward our climate goals,” he continued.

COVID-19 and its future variants

“US military power must be our tool of last resort not our first and should not be used as an answer to every problem we see around the world,” he said in is remarks before the UN General Assembly.

Biden continued: “Indeed, today many of our greatest concerns cannot be solved or even addressed through the force of arms. Bombs and bullets cannot defend against Covid-19 or its future variants. To fight this pandemic, we need a collective act of science and political will. We need to get shots in arms as fast as possible and expand access to oxygen, tests, treatments to save lives around the world.”

He touted American vaccine sharing efforts, saying they’d provided a “little dose of hope” in communities around the world.

Biden said that the US contributed more than $15 billion toward global COVID-19 response, shipping “more than 160 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine to other countries.”

“This includes 130 million doses from our own supply and the first tranches of a half a billion doses of Pfizer vaccine we purchased to donate through COVAX,” he said.

Global trade and economic growth

“We will pursue new rules of global trade and economic growth, level the playing field so it’s not artificially tipped in any one country at the expense of others and every nation has the right and opportunity to compete fairly,” the President said.

“We will strive to ensure basic labor rights, environmental safe guards, and intellectual property are protected and that the benefits of globalization are shared broadly throughout all our societies. We’ll continue to uphold the long-standing rules and norms that have formed the guardrails of international engagement for decades that have been essential to the development of nations around the world. Bedrock commitments like freedom of navigation, adherence to international laws and treaties, support for arms control measures to reduce the risk and enhance transparency,” Biden continued.

“As we strive to deal with these urgent challenges, whether they’re long-standing or newly emerging, we must also deal with one another. All the major powers of the world have a duty, in my view, to carefully manage their relationships so they do not tip from responsible competition to conflict,” Biden said.

His comments come amid tension between European leaders and the White House over a sinking submarine deal.

Biden says US will pursue “new rules of global trade and economic growth”

“We will pursue new rules of global trade and economic growth, level the playing field so it’s not artificially tipped in any one country at the expense of others and every nation has the right and opportunity to compete fairly,” the President said.

$10 billion to fight hunger globally

The US will be make a $10 billion commitment to the effort to “end hunger and invest in food systems at home and abroad.”

“At a time when nearly 1 in 3 people globally do not have access to adequate food, just last year, the United States has committed to rallying our partners to address immediate malnutrition and ensure we can sustainably feed the world for the decades to come.”

Support climate action

Biden said that he would work with Congress to double US funding to help developing countries. He cited “widespread death and devastation” due to climate change.

He said the step would meet a goal of mobilising $100 billion to support climate action in developing nations.

Terrorism

President Biden said the US must keep its guard up against global and domestic terrorism.

“We must also remain vigilant to the threat of terror, that terrorism poses, to all our nations, whether emanating from distant regions of the world or in our own backyard,” Biden said in front of world leaders.

“The bitter sting of terrorism is real. We’ve almost all experienced it. Last month, we lost 13 American heroes and almost 200 innocent Afghan civilians in a heinous terrorist attack at the Kabul airport. Those who commit acts of terrorism against us will continue to find a determined enemy in the United States. The world today is not the world of 2001, though. And the United States is not the same country we were when we were attacked on 9/11, 20 years ago. Today, we’re better equipped to detect and prevent terrorist threats and we are more resilient in our ability to repel them and to respond,” he said.