Biden promises America will be the ‘largest single country donor’ of humanitarian assistance and vows to ‘climate proof’ the world in UN General Assembly address

President Joe Biden pledged the United States would remain the “largest donor nation” of humanitarian aid and pledged to help the world “resist climate change” in his speech to the United Nations General Assembly Tuesday.

His calls come as Republicans in Washington and on the campaign trail say they would cut international aid budgets, as Nikki Haley did, and reject climate precautions, as Vivek Ramaswamy suggested in the first debate of the Republican Party.

Biden also cited the success of PEPFAR – the US president’s emergency plan for AIDS relief – as its reauthorization hangs in the balance over conservative claims that it supports abortion abroad.

“We have saved tens of millions of lives that would otherwise be lost to preventable and treatable diseases like measles, malaria and tuberculosis,” Biden said, defending what countries have been able to do collectively. “HIV/AIDS infections and deaths have fallen largely due to PEPFAR’s work in more than 55 countries, saving more than 25 million lives.

Biden acknowledged that while the world has seen decades of progress, “the world has lost ground in recent years as a result of COVID-19, conflict and other crises.”

“The United States is committed to doing its part to get us back on track,” the president said.

He touted the $100 billion already spent on development during his first two years in office.

“And as we work together to recover from global shocks, the United States will also continue to be the nation’s largest donor of humanitarian assistance during this time of unprecedented need around the world,” the president said.

He stressed that the climate crisis was the most pressing problem.

“We see it everywhere. Record heat waves in the United States and China, wildfires ravaging North America and southern Europe, a fifth year of drought in the Horn of Africa, tragic and tragic floods in Libya,” Biden said. “My heart goes out to the Libyan people. It killed thousands, thousands of people.

“Together, these snapshots show an urgent story of what lies ahead if we fail to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and (start) climate-proofing the world,” he noted.

He pointed to last year’s Inflation Reduction Act, which was passed only by Democrats.

Biden billed it as “the largest-ever investment in world history to combat the climate crisis and help shift the global economy toward a clean energy future.”

The biggest headline in Biden’s UNGA speech was his warning Tuesday that no nation is safe if Ukraine is “cut” by Russia.

Biden spoke to a crowd that included both Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky – dressed in his traditional military fatigues – and the Russian ambassador. Vaisily Nebenzya in the audience.

The US president denounced Russia’s “naked aggression” and pledged to continue funding kyiv, again calling the current moment an “inflection point in world history.”

Biden noted that “for the second year in a row, this gathering dedicated to the peaceful resolution of conflicts is overshadowed by the shadow of war.”

The president called it an “illegal war of conquest” and an “unprovoked” war by Russia in Ukraine.

“Like every nation in the world, the United States wants this war to end,” he said. “No nation wants this war to end more than Ukraine. And we strongly support Ukraine and its efforts to reach a diplomatic resolution that brings a just and lasting peace.

But he declared that “Russia alone, Russia alone, bears responsibility for this war.”

“Only Russia has the power to end this war immediately. And it is Russia alone that stands in the way of peace, because the price of peace for Russians is the surrender of Ukraine, Ukrainian territory and Ukrainian children,” Biden said.

“Russia thinks the world will tire and allow it to brutalize Ukraine without consequences,” the president added.

Biden then laid out what he believed to be the cost of this weariness.

“But I ask you this: If we abandon the fundamental principles of the United States of appeasing an aggressor, can any member state of this body have the certainty of being protected?” He asked.

“If we allow Ukraine to be divided, is the independence of a nation assured? » » reflected the president.

“I respectfully suggest the answer is no,” Biden said. “We must resist this blatant aggression today and deter other potential aggressors tomorrow.”

He did not mention Russian President Vladimir Putin by name.

“That’s why the United States, along with our allies and partners around the world, will continue to stand with the courageous people of Ukraine as they defend their sovereignty, territorial integrity, and freedom,” Biden said.

He received applause from the audience for this statement.

However, the reporter in the room also observed UNGA attendees on their phones checking Instagram and Google Maps during the president’s speech.

Nebenzya was also spotted on his phone during Biden’s speech.

Biden called sovereignty and territorial integrity “the fixed foundation of this noble body.”

“And universal human rights, its North Star.”

He touched on this concept throughout his speech, including advocating for LGBTQ people around the world.

“These rights are part of our common humanity…when they are absent anywhere, their loss is felt everywhere,” he said.

The president also reiterated that the United States does not want conflict with China.

“With respect to China, I want to be clear and consistent, we seek to responsibly manage competition between our countries, so that it does not escalate into conflict,” Biden said. “I said we were in favor of risk reduction and not decoupling from China.”

Biden began his speech by talking about his trip to Vietnam last week — a taste of what postwar relations could look like if Russia withdrew from Ukraine.

“Nothing about this journey was inevitable,” Biden said. “For decades, it would have been unthinkable for an American president to stand in Hanoi, alongside a Vietnamese leader, and announce a mutual commitment to the highest level of partnership between the countries.”

“But it is a powerful reminder that our history does not have to dictate our future,” the president said. “Through concerted leadership and careful effort, adversaries can become partners, significant challenges can be resolved, and deep wounds can heal. »