NEW YORK — President Joe Biden denounced Russian aggression in front of the world on Tuesday, taking to the United Nations to deliver an urgent call to rally around Ukraine — a pressing message aimed both at global partners and to those at home.
Biden hit many of the same notes as he did a year ago from the same New York rostrum, but from a dramatically changed backdrop. Last year, a Ukrainian counteroffensive had met with astounding success and aid to Kyiv flowed freely. Now, Ukraine’s latest ground push is stalling and, with a U.S. presidential election looming, House Republicans have threatened to slash aid to the war-torn country.
“No nation wants this war to end more than Ukraine. Russia alone bears responsibility, has power to end war, and stands in the way of peace,” Biden said. “Russia believes that the world will grow weary and allow it to brutalize Ukraine without consequence.”
The president declared the U.N. must “stand up to this naked aggression,” drawing applause from many in attendance, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who will address the assembly later to seek aid for his battered nation.
But the speech also differed from last year’s version in other ways. Biden’s call to stand with Ukraine came nearly 20 minutes into his address, and he showcased a foreign policy vision that extended far beyond the war zone. He spent much of his remarks focused on the developing world, returning to his long-running theme to rally democracies against the globe’s rising autocracies. On Tuesday, he went further, implicitly urging developing nations to turn their backs on Russia and China’s autocracies and join an inter-connected, rules-based order promoted by the U.S. and its allies.
“The United States seeks a more secure, more prosperous, more equitable world for all people, because we know our future is bound up with yours,” Biden said. “And no nation can meet the challenges of today alone.”
Biden, in his third speech to the general assembly, cited his country's own comeback from the pandemic as an example that “democracies can deliver in the ways that matter to people’s lives.” He vowed to foster international cooperation to press for solutions on sweeping challenges like climate change, equitable development, artificial intelligence and global health.
Ukraine remained a focus. The president hammered that point home from the U.N. rostrum, calling for the continent to stiffen its resolve as the U.S. continues to funnel billions of dollars of weapons and supplies to the Ukrainian resistance. Biden framed the battle as a rivalry between democracies and autocracies, but also pushed non-democracies to stand with the West against Russia.
Biden’s speech was equally directed to ears in Washington, where Republicans have called for slashing money being sent to the war zone. House GOP leaders, on Sunday night, introduced a government funding bill without any aid for Ukraine.
Donald Trump, expected to again become the GOP presidential nominee, has questioned the need to back Ukraine and repeated a desire to broker a peace deal with Russia quickly. Officials on both sides of the Atlantic assess that Putin is trying to wait out the upcoming U.S. election, believing that his fortunes in the war could change if a Republican commands from the Oval Office.
Congress has already approved $113 billion in aid for Ukraine including around $70 billion for security assistance; more than 90 percent of it has already been spent or assigned. The latest White House request includes $13.1 billion for military aid to Ukraine and replenishment of Pentagon weapons supplies that have been used for the war effort.
Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, skipped the general assembly, as did China’s Xi Jinping, but Beijing’s presence loomed large on the east side of Manhattan. Much of Biden’s speech read as a pitch to the developing world, highlighting democratic efforts that have helped nations like Vietnam and Haiti, as well as ongoing global infrastructure projects. But its true subject was China, although the president tried to publicly downplay tensions with Beijing, as he did just weeks ago at the G20.
“None of these partnerships are about containing any other country,” said Biden. “We seek to responsibly manage the competition between our countries.”
He was scheduled to meet later Tuesday with the leaders of five Central Asian nations — Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan — all nations that border Russia or China.
Biden’s moment on the global stage came amid swirling domestic political worries.
The president has been grappling with possibly sweeping economic consequences of the United Auto Workers strike as well as ongoing fallout from the indictment of his son, Hunter, and an impeachment inquiry from Congress. His reelection bid also is top of mind — and its likely rematch against Trump.
And the clock is ticking toward a government shutdown at the end of the month, an outcome that White House aides would largely be blamed on Republicans — but still holds political risk for the president.
Still, the White House has leaned into Biden’s image as a global statesman, using it as proof of his leadership — and to highlight the revitalization of coalitions left damaged by Trump, his predecessor — as well as his vitality. Biden’s secret trip to Kyiv earlier this year was made into a recent campaign ad designed as a subtle rebuke to critics who believe the 80-year-old president is too frail to do the job.
The absence of the heavyweights from New York also, White House aides acknowledged, furthered the impression that the United Nations, though still a glitzy gathering of global diplomacy, has been diminished as a place to enact real change.
While in New York, Biden will also hold a meeting with the U.N. secretary-general, attend a labor event with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil and host world leaders for a reception at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Biden is also expected to meet Wednesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the sidelines of the gathering, denying the right-wing leader the White House visit he wanted in the wake of a judicial reform that Biden has denounced as anti-democratic. Many in the White House have grown wary of Netanyahu’s leadership even as they may use the Turtle Bay meetings to push for a normalization of relations between longtime foes Israel and Saudi Arabia.
And once more mixing in the needs of domestic politics, he will attend several campaign fundraisers.
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