In his first address to the United Nations, President Joe Biden has urged global unity through “a decisive decade for our world”. Reaffirming his support for democracy and diplomacy, Mr Biden said: “We must work together like never before.”

At a gathering of the 76th United Nations General Assembly in New York City, Biden addressed climate crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic, both of which have sharpened global divides. Mr Biden urged cooperation on these fronts, saying: “Whether we choose to fight for our shared future or not will reverberate for generations to come. Simply put, we stand, in my view, at an inflection point in history.”

President Biden also stressed that the U.S. is “not seeking a new Cold War or a world divided into rigid blocs,” adding that the U.S. “is ready to work with any nation that steps up and pursues peaceful resolution to shared challenges, even if we have intense disagreements in other areas.”

And despite the widespread criticism by allies on the U.S. pullout from Afghanistan, Biden said the US was ending a “period of relentless war” for a “new era of relentless diplomacy”.

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