Biden to sell ‘vision’ of global engagement in final speech to United Nations

President Biden on Tuesday will deliver his last address to the United Nations General Assembly—a speech that will seek to memorialize his legacy, inspire support for Vice President Harris, and reassure allies and vulnerable nations to count on the U.S.

Coming just six weeks before the U.S. election, Biden’s speech will serve to underscore support for his vision of global engagement compared to former President Trump’s transactional and isolationist approach, confrontation toward allies and reverence for autocrats. 

“We live in a world with many problems, with many divisions, but we have a story to tell about what we’ve done to rally the world,” a senior administration official said in a call with reporters Monday night, previewing the president’s speech.

“I think this will be an important moment to say, ‘Where do we go?’ And, ‘what are the principles in which we’re going to solve these problems?'”

Biden will deliver a farewell address on what is arguably the biggest global stage and on foreign policy, where he has demonstrated his enormous skill but faces incredible challenges – with nearly a year of war in the Middle East on the brink of dangerous escalation, Russia’s war against Ukraine showing no signs of abating, and little of the world’s attention on a devastating civil war in Sudan. 

“We’ll be talking about the need to strengthen our systems for providing humanitarian assistance to end brutal wars in Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan. And we’ll also be talking about the implications of new technologies such as artificial intelligence,” the official said.

“When President Biden came to office nearly four years ago, he pledged to restore American leadership on the world stage, and given that this is the president’s last General Assembly, it’s a chance for him to talk about how this approach has produced results, real achievements for the American people and for the world.”

The president’s speech will aim to inspire the world—and U.S. voters—to carry on his vision of global engagement, protection for democracies, and cooperation worldwide to confront challenges of conflict, climate change, new technology and public health.

While Biden and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have identified China as the most intense, long-term security challenge for the U.S., the president is expected to lay out his approach to engagement with Beijing to tackle the opioid crisis—which is devastating American communities—and work to maintain open lines of communication to avoid conflict during moments of heightened tension between each country’s militaries. 

“An important part of the President’s legacy has been thinking about how we responsibly manage our competition with China, and that includes many facets, economic, security, and those will be addressed in the speech,” the official said. 

Biden is expected to emphasize his role in rallying global democracies to support Ukraine in its defensive war against Russia as the ultimate defense of the United Nations charter, with the calls for respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity meant to underscore to smaller nations on the frontlines of Russian or Chinese aggression, that the U.S. is a better friend than Moscow or Beijing. 

But the U.S. is alienated on its record in the Middle East, where the majority of United Nations member states have condemned Israel’s response in the Gaza Strip to Hamas’s Oct. 7 terrorist attack, called for an end to Israel’s occupation in the West Bank and voted in favor of admitting the Palestinian Authority as a member – all issues the Biden administration has either rejected or used its veto power in the Security Council to shield Israel. 

Still, Biden will seek to defend his policy by bringing up his efforts to secure a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas – that succeeded for at least one week at the end of November – to secure the release of hostages and scale up delivery of humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip.

The administration defends that a cease-fire in Gaza is the best way to cool overall tensions in the region, in particular as fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon has increased dramatically amid hundreds of air strikes, exchange of rocket fire and following an audacious, alleged, Israeli operation blowing up pagers and walkie-talkies linked to Hezbollah fighter that killed dozens and injured thousands of rank-and-file members. 

“He will address the Middle East, especially this very difficult year that we have all gone through. And again, I think it’s an opportunity to talk about what we have achieved and what we still need to do, given a situation that is just heartbreaking where hostages have not been returned, the humanitarian situation in Gaza. And as you know, just such a sensitive issue, such a delicate and dangerous situation between Israel and Lebanon right now,” the official said.