Whereas he took an unrelenting stance towards Russia’s brutal struggle and warned towards appeasing Moscow, he drew a extra measured line on China, repeating his dedication to “push again on aggression and intimidation” by Beijing whereas looking for methods to work collectively and denying that he was attempting to include the Asian big. “We search to responsibly handle the competitors between our international locations so it doesn’t tip into battle,” he mentioned.
Mr. Biden talked about a litany of different main points confronting the world in the present day, like fentanyl abuse, synthetic intelligence, terrorism, human rights, ladies’s rights, L.G.B.T. rights and arms management, with out breaking a lot new floor on any of them. He burdened the risks of local weather change as he urged extra motion to fight it, citing warmth waves, wildfires, drought and the flooding in Libya.
“Collectively, these snapshots inform an pressing story of what awaits us if we fail to scale back our dependence on fossil fuels and start to climate-proof the world,” he mentioned. Below his administration, he mentioned, “america has handled this disaster because the existential menace from the second we took workplace, not just for us, however for all of humanity.”
Mr. Biden will probably be utilizing his time on the United Nations this week to fulfill with different world leaders. He met Tuesday afternoon with the leaders of the 5 Central Asian republics that was once a part of the Soviet Union — Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan — the primary time a president has sat down collectively with counterparts with these international locations.
The “Stans,” as they’re typically referred to as by diplomats, have been a key space of competitors between Russia and China within the years since they gained their independence from the Soviet collapse, however america has sought affect there as nicely, significantly throughout its ill-fated struggle in Afghanistan. Mr. Biden’s assembly with their leaders is in step with his technique of bolstering relations with nations in China’s neighborhood to counter assertive actions by Beijing.