Gaza ceasefire talks continue, Biden delivers final foreign policy speech Joe Biden News
Washington, DC– Just days before President-elect Donald Trump is set to be inaugurated, US President Joe Biden delivered a powerful speech defending his administration's foreign policy.
The speech at the State Department on Monday marked the end of Biden's four-year term. He pledged to reestablish U.S. leadership on the global stage, pursue a human rights-centered foreign policy and unite alliances.
“We are at an inflection point. The post-Cold War era is over. A new era has begun,” Biden said in his speech.
“Over these four years, we've had crises and we've been tested. In my opinion, we are better equipped to get through these tests than we were going into them.”
Critics, however, gave his administration low marks in several areas, particularly over U.S. support for Israel's war in Gaza.
Still, the outgoing president is trying to send a clear message: America is stronger and its enemies weaker than before he entered the White House.
“There will be new challenges in the coming years and months, but even so, it's clear that my administration will leave a very strong legacy to the next administration,” Biden said.
“We will leave them with an America with more friends and stronger alliances, with weaker adversaries and under pressure — an America that once again leads, unites countries, sets the agenda, brings other countries together to support our plans and Vision of America.”
Biden spoke seven days before Trump's January 20 inauguration.
The president-elect denounced Biden's foreign policy on the campaign trail, accusing Democrats of weakening America's standing abroad while allowing wars in Ukraine and the Middle East to fester.
Biden offered a different picture on Monday. He believes that his leadership has strengthened the United States' technological, economic and strategic position vis-à-vis China, a world power.
The Democrat also praised his administration's role in garnering NATO support for Ukraine, which has faced a full-scale Russian invasion since February 2022.
He also defended the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan in 2021, which fulfills the agreement reached with the Taliban under Trump. The withdrawal ended two decades of U.S. 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 are 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 Spin”
Israel's war on Gaza was perhaps the most important part of Biden's speech. When he arrived, the president was greeted by protesters who chanted “War criminals!”
Critics accuse Washington of supporting atrocities abroad by continuing to provide military aid to Israel.
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 a record nearly $17.9 billion in military aid to Israel in the first year of the war, but has so far declined to use continued funding to end the war.
Experts speculate that Biden’s “unwavering” support for Israel will be a permanent scar on his legacy.
However, in his speech on Monday, the US president focused on the ceasefire plan approved by the United Nations Security Council in June, which his administration has spearheaded.
A final agreement between Israel and the Palestinian armed group Hamas remains elusive. Still, Biden spoke of the latest diplomatic turmoil with hope.
“We're on the verge of achieving a proposal I made months ago that will finally come 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 mediators Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
“Over the years in public service, I have learned to never, never, never, never give up,” Biden said. “So many innocent people have been killed, so many communities 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 extremely negative.”
Bishara explained that the latest round of negotiations was “eight months late.”
He described the period as “eight months of delays by the Netanyahu government and the complicity of this administration.”
“Diplomatic and geopolitical opportunities”
All in all, Biden's speech represented a full-circle moment in American politics.
Biden enters the White House in 2021 promising a stark contrast to the isolationist and erratic foreign policy platform of Trump's first term.
He leaves office in 2025, calling on the incoming second Trump administration to avoid repeating the policy mistakes of the past.
He has touted his efforts to combat climate change, including rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement, an international treaty limiting carbon emissions.
Trump previously withdrew from the agreement in 2020. As his second term approaches, his incoming administration is expected to withdraw from the agreement again as part of his broader commitment to deregulate the U.S. energy industry. Biden blasted those plans in a speech on 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're from a different century. They're wrong. They couldn't be more wrong. This is the greatest existential threat to humanity.”
Biden also sought to draw another contrast with Trump by touting America's alliances.
“America is stronger than we were four years ago. Our alliances are stronger. Our adversaries and competitors are weaker. We didn't go to war to accomplish these things,” Biden said.
“We have strengthened our diplomacy and built more allies than at any time in American history.”
His comments were a foil to Trump's recent rhetoric. While Biden emphasized “strengthening partnerships across the Americas,” Trump promised sweeping tariffs on Canada and Mexico. He also called for seizing control of the Panama Canal from Panama.
Biden also praised new alliances in the Indo-Pacific, including with regional allies such as Japan, South Korea and the Philippines. Although Trump has repeatedly raised the possibility of withdrawing from NATO, Biden emphasized the importance of the NATO alliance in his speech.
“The United States should take full advantage of the diplomatic and geopolitical opportunities we create,” Biden said.
He recommended that the United States “continue to bring countries together to face the challenges posed by China, ensure that Putin's wars end, and ultimately take advantage of new opportunities to build a more stable and integrated Middle East.”