With just one week left in office, President Joe Biden on Monday delivered a speech touting his foreign policy legacy and providing details on the ongoing hostage negotiations between the U.S., Israel, and Hamas.
Speaking from the State Department, Biden praised his administration’s foreign policy achievements but noted there are still challenges ahead — including the ongoing wars in Ukraine and Gaza.
Here are three takeaways from Biden’s last foreign policy speech:
Israel-Hamas deal is ‘close’
Biden said the U.S. was “pressing hard” to close a deal that would see the hostages held by Hamas freed in exchange for a time of peace in Gaza.
“On the war between Israel and Hamas, we’re on the brink of a proposal that I laid out in detail months ago finally coming to fruition,” Biden said. “The Palestinian people deserve peace and the right to determine their own futures. Israel deserves peace and real security. And the hostages and their families deserve to be reunited,” the president continued. “And so, we’re working urgently to close this deal.”
Prior to Biden’s remarks, national security adviser Jake Sullivan said a deal was close and that it could be done before the President’s final week in office.
The current deal in talks would see the initial ceasefire period lasting at least six weeks in exchange for the release of hostages held in Gaza, according to officials familiar with the talks.
“We are close to a deal, and it can get done this week,” Sullivan said during a press briefing at the White House. “I’m not making a promise or a prediction, but it is there for the taking and we are going to work to make it happen.”
Biden leaving Trump with “very strong hand”
Biden said he is leaving the Trump administration a country in a far stronger position than the one he inherited, with a “strong hand to play”.
“Even so, it’s clear: my administration is leaving the next administration with a very strong hand to play. And leaving them an America with more friends and stronger alliances, whose adversaries are weaker and under pressure,” Biden said.
Ukraine and Afghanistan
The President also touched on Russia’s war in Ukraine during his remarks, touting his administration’s efforts to boost Ukraine and the U.S. global alliances.
“Today, I can report to the American people our adversaries are weaker than where we came into this job four years ago. Just consider Russia. When Putin invaded Ukraine, he tried to conquer Kyiv in a matter of days. But the truth is, since that war began, I’m the only one who stood in the center of Kyiv, not him. Putin never has. Think about it,” Biden said.
“We help Ukrainians stop Putin. And now, nearly three years later, Putin has failed to achieve any of his strategic objectives,” he added.
The Afghanistan withdrawal was likely the most controversial foreign policy moment of Biden’s term but Monday he touted the accomplishment of ending the war.
“In my view, it was time to end the war and bring our troops home and we did. I commend the courage of all those who served in Afghanistan. We grieve all 2,461 Americans made the ultimate sacrifice in the longest war in American history, and I grieve for those brave service members whose lives were lost during the withdrawal,” Biden said. “We also thank those inside and outside of government, have done so much to help thousands of Afghan families resettle in the United States.”
