US President Joe Biden has promised a new era after the scattershot foreign policy of his predecessor, Donald Trump, declaring “America is back” on the global stage in his first diplomatic address as president. In his speech, Biden signaled aggressive approaches to China and Russia, urged Myanmar’s military leaders to halt their coup, and declared an end to US support for a Saudi Arabia-led military campaign in Yemen.
“American leadership must meet this new moment of advancing authoritarianism, including the growing ambitions of China to rival the United States and the determination of Russia to damage and disrupt our democracy. We must meet the new moment … accelerating global challenges from the pandemic to the climate crisis to nuclear proliferation,” said Biden.
Trump angered European and Asian leaders with tariffs, the fracturing of global alliances, and threats to withdraw U.S. troops. He did little to push back against a wave of authoritarianism in some countries. After a Trump-inspired mob attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, protesting Biden’s election win, foreign allies and rivals alike expressed doubts about the health of American democracy. Biden’s speech on Thursday was a full-throated attempt to vanquish those doubts, and convince Americans of the value of a forceful international approach.
“Investing in our diplomacy isn’t something we do just because it’s the right thing to do for the world,” he said. “We do it in order to live in peace, security, and prosperity. We do it because it’s in our own naked self-interest.” Biden’s choice of the State Department as a venue for his first big diplomatic address was an important symbol of the value he places in career diplomats, who Trump largely saw as opponents. “We’ll confront China’s economic abuses, counter its aggressive, coercive action to push back on China’s attack on human rights, intellectual property, and global governance. But we’re ready to work with Beijing when it’s in America’s interest to do so,” he said. “We are a country that does big things. American diplomacy makes it happen and our administration is ready to take up the mantle and lead once again,” said Biden. (Reporting by Steve Holland, Alexandra Alper, Humeyra Pamuk, Simon Lewis, and David Brunnstrom; Editing by Heather Timmons and Daniel Wallis)