Biden Says He's Leaving Trump With 'Strong Hand to Play' in World Conflicts

Washington: President Joe Biden said on Monday that his leadership of American foreign policy has made the country safer and more economically secure, claiming that President-elect Donald Trump will take over a nation that is seen as stronger and more reliable than it was four years ago.

During a wide-ranging speech to reflect on his foreign policy legacy a week before handing over the White House to Trump, Biden praised his administration's efforts to expand NATO, rally allies to provide Ukraine with military aid to combat Russia, and strengthen American chip manufacturing to better compete with China.

Biden's case for his achievements will be shadowed and shaped, at least in the near term, by the messy counterfactual that American voters once again turned to Trump and his protectionist worldview. And he will leave office at a turbulent moment for the globe, with a series of conflicts raging.  

"Thanks to our administration, the US is winning the worldwide competition compared to four years ago," Biden said in his address at the State Department. "America is stronger. Our alliances are stronger. Our adversaries and competitors are weaker. We have not gone to war to make these things happen." The one-term Democrat took office in the throes of the worst global pandemic in a century, and his plans to repair alliances strained by four years of Trump's "America First" worldview were quickly stress-tested by international crises -- the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan, Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, and Hamas' brutal 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the war in the Middle East. 

Biden argued that he provided a steady hand when the world needed it most. He was tested by war, calamity and miscalculation.

"My administration is leaving the next administration with a very strong hand to play," Biden said. "America is once again leading." Chaotic US exit from Afghanistan was early setback With the US completing its 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan, Biden fulfilled a campaign promise to wind down America's longest war.

But the 20-year conflict ended in disquieting fashion -- the US-backed Afghan government collapsed, a grisly bombing killed 13 US troops and 170 others, and thousands of desperate Afghans descended on Kabul's airport in search of a way out before the final US aircraft departed over the Hindu Kush.

The Afghanistan debacle was a major setback just eight months into Biden's presidency that he struggled to recover from.

"Ending the war was the right thing to do, and I believe history will reflect that," Biden said.

Biden's Republican detractors, including Trump, cast it as a signal moment in a failed presidency.

Biden's legacy in Ukraine may hinge on Trump's approach going forward With Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Biden rallied allies in Europe and beyond to provide Ukraine with billions in military and economic assistance -- including more than USD 100 billion from the US alone. That allowed Kyiv to stay in the fight with Russian President Vladimir Putin's vastly bigger and better-equipped military.

Biden's team also coordinated with allies to hit Russia with a steady stream of sanctions aimed at isolating the Kremlin and making Moscow pay an economic price for prosecuting its war.

Biden on Monday marvelled that at the start of the war Putin thought Russian forces would easily defeat Ukraine in a matter of days. It was an assessment US and European intelligence officials shared.

Instead, Biden said his administration and its allies have "laid the foundation" for the Trump administration to help Ukraine eventually arrive at a moment where it can negotiate a just end to the nearly three-year old conflict.

Trump has criticised the cost of the war to US taxpayers and has vowed to bring the conflict to a quick end.

Biden's Mideast diplomacy shadowed by devastation of Gaza In the Middle East, Biden has stood by Israel as it has worked to root out Hamas from Gaza. That war spawned another in Lebanon, where Israel has mauled Iran's most powerful ally, Hezbollah, even as Israel has launched successful airstrikes openly inside of Iran for the first time.

The degradation of Hezbollah in turn played a role when Islamist-led rebels last month ousted longtime Syrian leader Bashar Assad, a brutal fixture of Iran's "Axis of Resistance".

Biden's relationship with Israel's conservative leader Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been strained by the enormous Palestinian death toll in the fighting and Israel's blockade of the territory, which has left much of Gaza a hellscape where access to food and basic health care is severely limited.

Pro-Palestinian activists have demanded an arms embargo against Israel but US policy has largely remained unchanged.

Aaron David Miller, a former State Department Middle East negotiator, said the approach has put Iran on its heels but Biden will pay a reputational cost for the devastation of Gaza.

More than 15 months after the Hamas-led attack that prompted the war, around 98 hostages remain in Gaza. More than a third of those are presumed dead by Israeli authorities.

Biden's Middle East adviser Brett McGurk is in the Middle East, looking to complete an elusive hostage and ceasefire deal as time runs out in the presidency.

Trump, for his part, is warning that "all hell" will be unleashed on Hamas if the hostages aren't freed by Inauguration Day.

Sullivan declined to comment on Trump's threats to Hamas, but offered that the two sides are in agreement about the most important thing -- getting a deal done.