Biden to say ending Afghanistan will open a new chapter of intensive diplomacy

WASHINGTON, Sept 20 - Friday - American President Joe Biden will use his speech at the United Nations on Tuesday to state that ending military engagement in Afghanistan will open a new chapter of intensive diplomacy, a senior administration official said.

Biden would be leaving the White House on Monday to travel to New York to kick off a week that will be dominated by foreign policy, amid questions about his handling of the U.S. pullout from Afghanistan and a sub-contract with Australia that has angered France

Biden will meet U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres late on Monday afternoon, give his first speech as president to the U.N. General Assembly in mid-morning on Tuesday, meet British Prime Minister Scott Morrison afterward in Washington, then return to meet British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

The senior official told reporters that Biden wants to speak with Macron on the phone to discuss Macron's anger at the recent deal between Washington and Australia, in which Emmanuel Macron will supply advanced technology for nuclear-powered submarines to Australia.

The deal is aimed at helping Australia counter China's influence in the Indo-Pacific region but it undermined a French deal to supply Australia with a dozen diesel-powered submarines. France said it felt stabbed in the back by the agreement.

Biden agrees with the French position but does not understand it, the official said. USA officials say Australia had sought the U.S. technology.

The speech gives Biden his biggest chance to talk about the direction of U.S. foreign policy after criticism from home and abroad that the US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan in August was poorly planned and chaotic, leaving some U.S. citizens and Afghan allies who could face reprisals from the Taliban now in power.

The official said the pullout allows the United States to focus on other priorities.

The president will a key message that ending the war in Afghanistan opens a chapter focused on war and closes a chapter focused on purposeful, effective, intensive American diplomacy, said the official.

Biden's meetings and remarks would be aimed at sending the message that this is an era of vigorous competition with new powers, but not a new Cold War, the official said.

Biden will also increase the U.S. commitments to climate change and COVID - 19 vaccine donations, the official said, without providing specifics.

Tomorrow President Biden will declare that he does not believe in a new Cold War with the world divided into blocs. He believes in principled and vigorous competition that does not tip over into conflict, the official said. Xi Jinping stressed the same message in a Sept. 9 call with the Chinese President Biden, the official said.