Biden delivers final foreign policy speech as Gaza ceasefire talks continue joe biden news

Washington DC – United States President Joe Biden has given a powerful speech defending his administration’s foreign policy, just days before President-elect Donald Trump takes office.

Monday’s address, delivered at the State Department, served as a coda to Biden’s four years in office. He promised to reassert American leadership on the global stage, pursue a foreign policy focused on human rights, and unify alliances.

“We are at an inflection point. The post-Cold War era is over. A new era has begun,” Biden said in his speech.

“In these four years, we have faced crises that have tested us. “In my view, we have come through those trials stronger than we entered them.”

However, critics have given his administration poor marks in several areas, particularly with regard to US support for Israel’s war on Gaza.

Still, the outgoing president tried to deliver a decisive message: that America is more powerful and its enemies weaker than before entering the White House.

“New challenges will emerge in the coming years and months, but nonetheless, it is clear that my administration is leaving the next administration with a much stronger role,” Biden said.

“We are leaving to them an America with more friends and stronger alliances, with adversaries weakened and under pressure – an America that is once again leading, uniting nations, setting the agenda, Bringing others together behind our plans and visions.”

Biden spoke just seven days before Trump’s inauguration on January 20.

The president-elect had criticized Biden’s foreign policy during the campaign and accused the Democrat of promoting wars in Ukraine and the Middle East as well as undermining America’s position abroad.

Biden presented a different picture on Monday. He argued that his leadership had strengthened America’s technological, economic, and strategic position against China, a competing world power.

Democrats also praised his administration’s role in mobilizing NATO support for Ukraine, which faces a full-scale invasion by Russia beginning in February 2022.

He also defended the US’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, which capped the deal with the Taliban under Trump. This withdrawal ended America’s two-decade presence in the country.

“When I took charge, I had a choice. “At the end of the day, I see no reason to keep thousands of troops in Afghanistan,” Biden said.

“By ending the war, we are able to focus our energies and resources on more pressing challenges.”

He said he is “the first president in decades who is not leaving the war in Afghanistan to his successor”.

‘Positive Spin’

Biden’s speech perhaps showed the biggest impact of Israel’s war on Gaza. As the President arrived, protesters greeted him and chanted, “War criminals!”

Critics have charged that Washington’s continued transfer of military aid to Israel is tantamount 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 territory are “consistent with genocide”.

The US provided approximately $17.9 billion in military aid to Israel during the first year of the war and has so far refused to take advantage of continued funding to end the war.

Experts have predicted that Biden’s “unwavering” support for Israel will be a permanent stain on his legacy.

Still, in Monday’s speech, the US president focused on the ceasefire plan that was approved by the UN Security Council in June, led by his administration.

The final agreement between Israel and the Palestinian armed group Hamas is still unclear. Still, Biden spoke optimistically about the latest diplomatic developments.

“We are on the verge of a proposal that I put forward months ago finally coming to fruition,” Biden said.

He said he had recently spoken to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, and would soon speak to fellow mediator Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi.

“Through my many years of public service, I have learned 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, Al Jazeera senior political analyst Marwan Bishara said Biden was “trying to put a positive spin on a lot of things that are obviously incredibly negative”.

Bishara said the latest round of talks came “eight months too late”.

He described that time period as “eight months of delay on the part of the Netanyahu government and the complicity of this administration.”

‘Diplomatic and geopolitical opportunities’

All told, Biden’s speech represents a full-circle moment in American politics.

Entering the White House in 2021, Biden pledged to counter the isolationist and mercantilist foreign-policy platform of Trump’s first term.

Departing in 2025, he appealed to the incoming second Trump administration to avoid returning to the policies of the past.

He praised his own efforts to tackle climate change, including rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement, an international treaty to limit carbon emissions.

Trump had earlier withdrawn from the agreement in 2020. As his second term approaches, his incoming administration is expected to do so again as part of his broader pledge to deregulate the US energy sector. Biden took a dig at those plans in a speech Monday.

“I know some people in the incoming 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. This is the biggest threat to the existence of humanity.”

Biden also tried to create another contrast with Trump by touting US alliances.

“Compared with four years ago, America is stronger. Our alliances are strong. Our opponents and competitors are weak. 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 in our nation’s history.”

His comments served to counter Trump’s recent comments. While Biden touted “strong partnerships across America,” Trump has promised to impose sweeping tariffs on Canada and Mexico. He has also called for Panama to seize control of the Panama Canal.

Biden also praised the renewed alliance in the Indo-Pacific region, including regional allies such as Japan, South Korea and the Philippines. And despite Trump repeatedly raising the possibility of a withdrawal, Biden used his speech to underscore the importance of the NATO alliance.

“The United States must take full advantage of the diplomatic and geopolitical opportunities this has created for us,” Biden said.

He advised the US to “continue to bring countries together to deal with the challenges posed by China, ensure that (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s war ends and, ultimately, build a new vision for a more stable, unified Middle East.” Seize the moment”.