What the world made of Biden’s big speech

Biden started his State of the Union address by talking about Ukraine. He then went on to talk about the Israel-Hamas war and the China-U. S. trade deal.

He ended the speech with a reference to the ‘greatest generation’ of Americans. Biden draws election battle lines in fiery speech. He calls on Congress to unblock the bill that would release the funding Kyiv needs. The Russian leader has claimed, falsely, that his invasion of Ukraine is aimed at “de-Nazifying”" Russia’s neighbour.

Russia smarts at the comparison with Nazi Germany. Ukraine will welcome a State of the Union speech that opened with a rallying cry for democracy and support for Kyiv. The contrast with its own rubber-stamp parliament, the National People’s Congress, is stark. Nearly 3,000 delegates are meeting in Beijing this week in the Great Hall of the People.

There will be a level of unease from China’s business sector that President Biden sees the need to show how tough he will be on Beijing. He has already expanded sanctions against China on a range of issues. The Biden administration has built an alliance to counter the might of China. The US would defend Taiwan if China tried to take the self-governing island by force.

In contrast, Mr Trump has refused to say he would help Taiwan. China can exploit these differences in Washington and use them to appear as a safer, long-term diplomatic bet. Biden announces plan for a new floating pier off Gaza to bring in food and basic supplies on ships via Cyprus. In many ways, this ambitious idea - which the president was careful to say would not involve US military boots on the ground - is a measure of frustration with a key ally.

Israel has stopped aid from entering via its own Mediterranean container port, Ashdod, 35km from northern Gaza. It has also resisted opening more border crossings. The Israeli government has also refused to allow aid into Gaza via the Rafah border crossing in the south.

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