Washington: US President Joe Biden on Thursday (local time) announced that "America is Back" and said that it will confront China, the "most serious competitor" to the United States and that Washington's leadership must meet the new challenge of Beijing's growing ambitions.
"We'll also confront their economic abuses. But we're ready to work with Beijing when it's in America's interest," Biden said in his first foreign policy address.
"I want the world to hear a message today: America is back; diplomacy is back at the centre of our foreign policy. American leadership must meet this new moment of advancing authoritarianism including the growing ambitions of China to rival the US and the determination of Russia," he said during an address at the State Department.
Biden has still not spoken with Chinese President Xi Jinping and the US ties with China remain tense.
President Biden reiterated that America's allies are among "its greatest assets adding that leading with diplomacy means "engaging our adversaries and our competitors diplomatically."
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"Over the past two weeks, I've spoken with the leaders of many of our closest friends -- Canada, Mexico, the UK, Germany, France, NATO, Japan, South Korea, and Australia -- to begin reforming the habits of cooperation and rebuilding the muscles of democratic alliances that have atrophied from four years of neglect and abuse," he said.