2023-09-19 15:40:00
Ukraine is expected to be one of the central topics of Biden’s speech this Tuesday before the United Nations General Assembly
Final preparations before the start of the United Nations General Assembly on September 19 in New York. (Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
The White House is shrugging off fears that the United Nations General Assembly will not have much of a political impact this year. President Joe Biden will deliver a speech Tuesday morning to an audience missing several key heads of state.
In his speech to the 78th United Nations General Assembly, Biden “will lay out to the world the steps he and his administration have taken to work with others to solve the world’s most serious challenges,” a senior told reporters. administration charge.
Biden is also expected to point to the “significant foreign policy successes” of his presidency, defending the U.S. role in the world ahead of the 2024 presidential campaign. As the president seeks a second term, there is some concern among world leaders regarding what that role might look like following next year’s elections.
The annual UN talks are taking place for the second year under the shadow of the war in Ukraine, and the conflict will remain a focus of leaders’ attention. Although the UN has led the organization of humanitarian aid during the conflict, it has not acted as a mediator in the war.
This year, the nations of the “global south” also demand the attention of leaders. Many have watched with skepticism as the West focuses attention and funding on Ukraine while its crises go unnoticed.
Biden will meet this Wednesday with the president of Brazil, Lula da Silva, to discuss labor issues, and with the prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, with whom Biden has clashed over the country’s controversial judicial reform plan.
Biden and Netanyahu, the senior official said, “will discuss a range of bilateral and regional issues focused on the democratic values shared between our two countries and a vision for a more stable, prosperous and integrated region, as well as compare notes on how to counter and deter effectively to Iran.
But with the high-level absences of Russia, China, France and the United Kingdom — all permanent members of the UN Security Council — the Biden administration will be relegated to lower-level engagements with key allies and adversaries, all hoping to elevate America’s view on global infrastructure, food security, democratic values, and territorial sovereignty.
One of the week’s most notable meetings won’t even take place in New York. Biden will receive Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House on Thursday before he meets with members of the US Congress on Capitol Hill.
In his speech this Tuesday, Biden will try to balance the US commitment to Ukraine with other pressing global challenges.
“When we are accused of focusing too much attention on Ukraine,” Thomas-Greenfield said, it is important that the U.S. can show that “it can take care of both Ukraine and the rest of the world at the same time.”
Ukraine will “feature prominently” in Biden’s remarks, the senior official said, but the president “will also talk regarding a lot of other things that are on our agenda and a lot of other issues that we’re moving forward on.”
Biden, the official added, will talk regarding “the United States’ commitment to the principles at stake in some of the most serious conflicts in the world right now, preeminently Ukraine, and what we are going to do to ensure that the UN Charter and to strengthen the coalition for independence from Russia in light of a brutal conflict and also to reiterate our commitment to human rights around the world.”
But there are areas where the administration recognizes that progress will remain elusive. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said he is not optimistic that U.N. leadership and partner countries will be able to move forward in restoring the Black Sea Grains Initiative, even though U.N. Secretary-General UN Secretary-General António Guterres met with Zelensky and other partners this week in New York.
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