Washington:
US President Joe Biden mentioned Wednesday he was not in search of conflict with China or Russia as he place a renewed concentrate on diplomacy in his 1st address to Congress.
Biden nonetheless pledged to be firm against each powers and pointed to China’s increasing strength to market huge investments at home.
The trillions of dollars in investment “advance a foreign policy that benefits the middle class” but all nations ought to abide “by the same rules,” Biden told a subdued joint session amid Covid restrictions on attendance.
Biden mentioned he told President Xi Jinping in a two-hour 1st phone conversation just after taking workplace that “we welcome the competition — and that we are not looking for conflict.”
“But I made absolutely clear that we will defend America’s interests across the board,” he mentioned.
“America will stand up to unfair trade practices that undercut American workers and industries, like subsidies for state-owned enterprises and the theft of American technologies and intellectual property,” he mentioned.
“I also told President Xi that we will maintain a strong military presence in the Indo-Pacific just as we do with NATO in Europe — not to start a conflict but to prevent one,” Biden mentioned to applause.
In an aside that was not in ready remarks, Biden noted his substantial dealings with Xi when each had been vice presidents — and warned that China’s most effective leader in years had firm plans for the future.
“He’s deadly earnest on becoming the most significant, consequential nation in the world,” Biden mentioned.
Tensions have sharply risen with China more than the previous couple of years as the United States also take situation with China’s assertive military moves and human rights issues, such as what Washington has described as genocide against the largely Muslim Uyghur minority.
Focus on cooperation
The speech marked a shift from the hawkish nationalism of his predecessor Donald Trump, with Biden repeatedly speaking of international cooperation.
“There is no wall high enough to keep the virus out,” Biden mentioned, alluding to Trump’s cherished wall on the Mexican border.
Biden similarly mentioned he did not seek worse relations with Russia.
In his 1st 3 months in workplace, Biden has imposed sanctions more than Russia’s purported poisoning of ailing dissident Alexei Navalny and more than its alleged interference in US elections and hacking operations.
But Biden has also proposed a summit in a third nation with President Vladimir Putin to bring stability to relations and pointed in his speech to cooperation on climate adjust and the extension of New Commence, the last Cold war nuclear reduction treaty.
“I made very clear to Putin that we are not going to seek escalation but their actions will have consequences,” Biden mentioned.
Flipping the language of George W. Bush when utilized the very same platform practically two decades ago to assail an “axis of evil,” Biden vowed diplomacy on the “serious threat” of the nuclear applications of each Iran and North Korea.
“We’ll be working closely with our allies to address the threats posed by both of these countries through diplomacy and stern deterrence,'” Biden mentioned.
The United States is holding indirect talks with Iran in Vienna in a bid to re-enter a denuclearization accord trashed by Trump.
The Biden administration is separately reviewing policy on North Korea just after Trump’s unusually individual diplomacy that integrated 3 meetings with leader Kim Jong Un.
Vowing to exert US leadership, Biden also mentioned he was reasserting US priorities by ending “the forever war” in Afghanistan — exactly where he is pulling out remaining troops just after 20 years.
(This story has not been edited by TheSpuzz employees and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)