Biden Calls For Unity vs Autocratic China, Russia

President Biden delivered his first address to the annual gathering of world leaders at the UN in New York on Sept. 22, 2021, amid doubts about his ability to restore US leadership in the world after the Trump administration’s isolationism, Remy Tumin reported for the New York Times.

Photo Insert: This was US President Joe Biden's first address to the UN General Assembly.

Biden called for unity among allies in confronting the coronavirus pandemic and autocratic nations such as China and Russia.

China’s leader, Xi Jinping, chastised the US, saying “democracy is not a special right reserved to an individual country.” Iran’s new president also rebuked the US and showed little sign of flexibility on nuclear talks.

The UN secretary-general, António Guterres, warned that nations needed to work together on war, climate change, and the pandemic — “the greatest cascade of crises in our lifetimes.”

And although he did not refer to the countries by name, he expressed fears about competition between China and the US, calling it “far less predictable than the Cold War.”

Both Biden and Xi made commitments on climate change. Xi told the UN that China would stop building coal plants abroad, and Biden vowed to double aid aimed at helping developing nations address the issue.

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