Washington, DC – US President Joe Biden delivered a resounding speech defending his administration’s foreign policy, just days before President-elect Donald Trump takes office.
Monday’s speech, delivered at the State Department, served as a coda to Biden’s four years in office. He pledged to restore American leadership on the world stage, pursue a foreign policy centered on human rights, and build alliances.
“We are at an inflection point. The post-Cold War era is over. A new era has begun,” Biden said in his speech.
“During these four years, we have faced crises that have tested us. We came through these tests stronger, in my opinion, than we entered them.
Critics, however, have given his administration poor marks in several areas, including U.S. support for Israel’s war on Gaza.
The outgoing president nevertheless sought to send a decisive message: the United States is more powerful and its enemies weaker than before he entered the White House.
“New challenges will emerge in the years and months to come, but even so, it is clear that my administration leaves the next administration with a very strong hand to play,” Biden said.
“We leave them an America with more friends and stronger alliances, whose adversaries are weaker and under pressure – an America that, once again, leads, unites countries, sets the agenda, brings others together behind our plans and our visions. »
Biden spoke just seven days before Trump’s January 20 inauguration.
The president-elect had condemned Biden’s foreign policy on the campaign trail, accusing the Democrat of weakening the United States’ standing abroad while allowing wars in Ukraine and the Middle East to fester.
Biden presented a different picture on Monday. He said his leadership had strengthened the United States’ technological, economic and strategic position against China, a competing global power.
The Democrat also praised his administration’s role in rallying NATO support for Ukraine, which has faced a full-scale invasion from Russia since February 2022.
He also defended the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, which solidifies a deal reached with the Taliban under Trump. The withdrawal ended two decades of American presence in the country.
“When I took office, I had a choice. Ultimately, I saw no reason to keep thousands of troops in Afghanistan,” Biden said.
“By ending the war, we were able to focus our energy and resources on more pressing challenges. »
He added that he was “the first president in decades not to leave the war in Afghanistan to his successor.”
“Positive effect”
Israel’s war on Gaza may have dominated Biden’s speech. Upon his arrival, the president was greeted by demonstrators who shouted: “War criminal!
Critics have charged that Washington’s continued transfer of military aid to Israel amounts to supporting atrocities abroad.
An estimated 46,584 Palestinians have been killed since the war began in October 2023, with UN experts warning that Israel’s actions in the Palestinian enclave are “consistent with genocide”.
The United States provided Israel with a record military aid of nearly $17.9 billion in the first year of the war and has so far refused to mobilize continued funding to end the war.
Experts have speculated that Biden’s “unwavering” support for Israel will be a permanent scar on his legacy.
Yet in his speech on Monday, the US president focused on the ceasefire plan approved in June by the UN Security Council and led by his administration.
A final agreement between Israel and the Palestinian armed group Hamas remains uncertain. Still, Biden spoke of the latest wave of diplomacy with hope.
“We are on the verge of a proposal that I put forward months ago finally coming to fruition,” Biden said.
He added that he had recently spoken with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, and would soon speak with fellow mediator Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al- Sisi.
“I have learned (over) many years of public service to never, ever, ever give up,” Biden said. “So many innocent people have been killed, so many communities have been destroyed. The Palestinian people deserve peace.
Responding to the speech, Tel Aviv Tribune senior political analyst Marwan Bishara said Biden was trying to “put a positive spin on so many things that are obviously incredibly negative.”
The latest round of negotiations comes “eight months too late,” Bishara said.
He described the period as “eight months of procrastination by the Netanyahu government and complicity by this administration.”
“Diplomatic and geopolitical opportunities”
All in all, Biden’s speech represented a full circle in American politics.
Entering the White House in 2021, Biden pledged to be a counterpoint to the isolationist and mercurial foreign policy agenda of Trump’s first term.
Leaving in 2025, he called on the new Trump administration to avoid returning to policies of the past.
He touted his own efforts to combat climate change, including rejoining the Paris Climate Accord, an international treaty aimed at limiting carbon emissions.
Trump already withdrew from the deal in 2020. As his second term approaches, his new administration is expected to do so again, as part of its broader commitment to deregulate the U.S. energy sector. Biden criticized those plans in Monday’s speech.
“I know some in the new administration are skeptical about the need for clean energy. They don’t even believe climate change is real,” he said.
“I think they come from a different century. They are wrong. They are absolutely wrong. It is the greatest existential threat to humanity.
Biden also sought to create another contrast with Trump by touting America’s alliances.
“Compared to four years ago, America is stronger. Our alliances are stronger. Our adversaries and competitors are weaker. We didn’t go to war to make these things happen,” Biden said.
“We have increased our diplomatic power, creating more allies than the United States has ever had in our nation’s history.”
His remarks served as a foil to Trump’s recent comments. While Biden touted “strengthened partnerships across the Americas,” Trump pledged to impose drastic tariffs on Canada and Mexico. He also called for taking control of the Panama Canal from Panama.
Biden also welcomed renewed alliances in the Indo-Pacific region, including with regional allies like Japan, South Korea and the Philippines. And Biden used his speech to emphasize the importance of the NATO alliance, although Trump repeatedly raised the possibility of withdrawal.
“The United States should take full advantage of the diplomatic and geopolitical opportunities we have created,” Biden said.
He advised the United States to “continue to bring countries together to confront the challenges posed by China, ensure that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war ends, and, finally, capitalize on a new moment for a Middle East.” Orient more stable and integrated.”