Biden’s first UN appearance as US President is seen by many as the highlight of the General Assembly. His predecessor Donald Trump had used the stage year after year to promote his “America First” policy of going it alone. Biden, on the other hand, started with the promise to strengthen international cooperation in all areas again.
The Afghanistan withdrawal as a turning point
However, Biden’s government recently attracted a lot of international criticism because of the troop withdrawal from Afghanistan. In his UN speech, however, according to his government, the US President wants to address the withdrawal from Afghanistan offensively and present it as a change of epoch.
With the end of the war in Afghanistan, a new chapter will be opened that will rely on diplomacy rather than military force to solve problems, said a senior US government official in Washington. Biden wanted to use the UN General Assembly for a commitment to intensive diplomacy instead of military intervention, this was the central theme of his speech.
Even with a view to China, Biden does not want a “new cold war”. It is about tough competition with China, not a conflict. The future and the fate of many countries are internationally so interwoven that problems can only be solved together.
The US irritates its allies
Most recently, however, Biden had been accused of not giving too much to international agreements. With a new security pact in the Indo-Pacific, the US, Great Britain and Australia alienated allies.
The plan includes helping Australia build nuclear-powered submarines. China, which is facing international criticism because of its increasing claim to power in the region, sees itself provoked by the tripartite alliance. France is furious because it has broken its own multi-billion dollar submarine deal with Australia. And Australia’s neighbor New Zealand and EU representatives also reacted with little enthusiasm.
Concrete statements on climate protection expected
In addition to the issues of Afghanistan and China, observers should also listen carefully to what Biden has to say about climate protection – he had declared the fight against the climate crisis to be a priority of his government. In a few weeks, the UN world climate conference is due in Glasgow, Scotland. UN chief Guterres had warned that there was a high risk that the climate conference would fail. The world is on a “catastrophic path” with regard to global warming.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, on the other hand, recently dampened hopes of the pledged climate aid for poorer countries of 100 billion US dollars this year. The chances are “six out of ten” that the international community will meet the originally agreed target. The US government said Biden would also comment on the $ 100 billion pledge – and what the United States were up to on this issue.
The list of speakers is high-ranking
The US President is not the only high-level speaker at the start of the UN General Assembly. After the UN general debate last year due to the corona pandemic ended mainly with pre-recorded video speeches, more than 100 heads of state and government are again personally represented in New York this year, albeit with significantly smaller delegations.
In addition to Biden, China’s President Xi Jinping, UN Secretary General António Guterres, Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi and Brazil’s head of state Jair Messias Bolsonaro will address the United Nations on Tuesday. The rest of the representatives from the 193 member states take part online.
Steinmeier and Maas arrive
Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier is to speak for Germany on Friday. In addition to him, Federal Foreign Minister Heiko Maas (SPD) is also traveling to New York. For him, the deliberations there are also likely to be about the political process in Libya, which is in danger, in which Germany plays a special role as a mediator.
The new Foreign Minister of Iran, Hussein Amirabdollahian, is also coming to New York and is supposed to hold talks with the British, Germans and French on the sidelines of the general debate. French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian held out the prospect of a meeting between Germany, Great Britain, France, Russia and China with Iran. The week should bring “a positive impetus for resuming negotiations on the return” of Tehran and Washington on the nuclear deal with Iran, said Le Drian.
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