An emboldened but challenged President Biden is set to address the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday morning, claiming new momentum on climate change and the war in Ukraine, but facing difficult questions of whether the United Nations is able to confront a Security Council member that has launched an invasion of one of its neighbors.
Mr. Biden has stressed the importance of American leadership in speeches on the global stage since taking office, arguing for the superiority of democracies over authoritarian governments and reassuring allies that the United States has left behind the “America First” policies of his predecessor, former President Donald J. Trump. He will continue to press that case on Wednesday, the national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, told reporters on Tuesday.
The president’s speech will “describe his vision for American foreign policy and principled leadership in the world,” Mr. Sullivan said.
In the speech, Mr. Biden will continue to rebuke Russia, which along with the United States is one of five permanent members of the Security Council, over its invasion of Ukraine this year. But Mr. Biden has no hope of marshaling action from the Council to punish Moscow because Russia holds an effective veto over the Council’s actions.
Mr. Sullivan said Mr. Biden would nod to that conundrum and call for reform to combat it.
“He will underscore the importance of strengthening the United Nations,” Mr. Sullivan said, “and reaffirm core tenets of its charter at a time when a permanent member of the Security Council has struck at the very heart of the charter by challenging the principle of territorial integrity and sovereignty.”
This month in San Francisco, Mr. Biden’s ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, committed the United States to a set of proposed changes to how the Security Council operates, including expanding its membership to diversify it geographically and forcing permanent members to explain their vetoes to the full General Assembly.
Mr. Biden could lay out even more detailed reform plans for the Council on Wednesday, Mr. Sullivan said.
The president is also expected to make what Mr. Sullivan called “significant new announcements,” far exceeding $100 million, to address global food insecurity. That includes calling for the elimination of food export bans and food hoarding in hopes of pushing down global prices.
Mr. Biden will use his speech to promote more than $370 billion in spending and tax incentives, included in a law he signed last month, that are meant to speed America’s efforts to reduce fossil fuel emissions, with the aim of galvanizing more ambitious global action to fight climate change.
He is also expected to call for Iran to return to a multinational agreement meant to stop its development of a nuclear weapon.
In the evening, the president and his wife, Jill Biden, will host a reception for other world leaders gathered at the General Assembly. Mr. Sullivan said Iran would not be invited.
