'Time to move on’: Biden urges unity on 'global issues' over 'continuing to fight wars'

In the face of a disorderly and chaotic Afghanistan drawdown condemned worldwide as well as in homeland America, and the ongoing political rift with France for bypassing Paris and reaching the Aukus pact with Canberra, President Biden on Tuesday said in his speech at UNGA that it was “ time to move on” and unite on other key global issues such as COVID-19 pandemic and climate change.

Calling for “global unity” against common world threats, the US president said that instead of “continuing to fight the wars” the world must unite to devote resources to the challenges such as ending pandemic, addressing the climate crisis, managing the shifts in global power dynamics, shaping the rules of the world on vital issues like trade, cyber, and emerging technologies, and facing the threat of terrorism. 

In his maiden speech as the United States president at UN General Assembly, Joe Biden said that America ended 20 years of conflict in Afghanistan so it could begin a new era of relentless diplomacy, and invest development aid in renewing democracies of the world. In the 21st Century, said the US leader, “our own success is bound up in others succeeding” as a global community and therefore the countries must “work together towards a shared future.” 

Biden outlined the United States’ commitment to North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), underscoring Article 5 of the alliance charter that he reaffirmed with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg. The article emphasises the importance of ‘alliances’, stating that the detriment to one member implies collective detriment on all. The former US president had argued about the relevance of the multilateral NATO and had privately discussed withdrawing from the treaty. Trump's former national security adviser John Bolton wrote in his book The Room Where it Happened, that the former US leader had “clashed with European Union leaders” at the NATO summit in 2017 immediately confirming that he may pull out from the alliance. 

Biden at UNGA said that it was a 'decisive decade’ where he wanted to focus on greater world cooperation as UN chief Antonio Guterres just hours before his address warned of a rising "sense of impunity" among governments of different countries. 

"Our shared grief is a poignant reminder that our collective future will hinge on our ability to recognize our common humanity and to act together," Biden said. "This is the clear and urgent choice that we face here at the dawning of what will be a decisive decade for our world, a decade that will quite literally determine our futures," he added. “Our security, our prosperity, and our very freedoms are interconnected,” said Biden at UNGA, adding that the US has been focusing on rebuilding alliances, revitalizing partnerships, and recognizing that it is essential and central to America's enduring security and prosperity. 

(Image: AP)