The White House: Biden will present a “full” defense of Ukraine in the United Nations General Assembly

President Joe Biden on Tuesday will issue a defense of U.S. leadership abroad and reiterate U.S. support for Ukraine, during a high-level speech at the United Nations, according to senior Biden administration officials — as the 2024 presidential election heats up at home.

In particular, Biden will reiterate U.S. support for reforming how the World Bank and other multilateral development banks work with low- and middle-income countries, the officials said. This trend constitutes an implicit counterweight to China’s long-term investments in developing countries around the world.

The president’s Tuesday speech to the U.N. General Assembly will also address climate change and represents an American commitment to the U.N. Charter and upholding human rights around the world, administration officials told reporters Monday.

“I think you’re going to see a comprehensive defense of support for Ukraine and why that’s important, not just to our national security interests but to the whole idea of ​​sovereignty and the UN Charter itself,” White House spokesman John Kirby said. on monday Interview with MSNBC.

Biden’s presence on the world stage comes one week after his return from a trip to India and Vietnam, where he called for reform of the Development Bank at a meeting of G20 leaders in New Delhi, India, and in Hanoi, Vietnam. He agreed to significantly improve US-Vietnamese relations.

It also comes to the White House, and the Biden campaign seeks to present him as a global leader who delivers results for American leaders – who work hard – in contrast, they say, to former President Donald Trump, the front-runner in the Republican presidential primaries. election. He will meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House on Thursday as the two men press Congress to approve $24 billion in additional funding for Kiev despite objections from some House Republicans.

While in New York on Wednesday, Biden will also meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to the White House.

Officials declined to share more information about the long-awaited meeting with Netanyahu or explain why it was being held on the sidelines of the annual General Assembly meeting and not at the White House. Netanyahu returned to power late last year, and it apparently took Biden nearly nine months to schedule a meeting with him.

Israeli prime ministers often meet their American counterparts much more quickly; However, Biden described Netanyahu’s government as the most extreme in decades, and made measured criticism of the Israeli prime minister’s handling of historic pro-democracy protests in Israel.

Biden will also meet in New York on Tuesday with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, as well as five Central Asian leaders – from Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, the officials said. Biden will also meet on Wednesday with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, officials said.

“President Biden will go to the General Assembly this year with the confidence of the United States,” one official said. “We have strong allies and new partners; we have a vision for institutional reform at the United Nations, at the World Bank and elsewhere; and we have initiatives to achieve infrastructure, health, climate, and other global public goods.”