‘I’m the only one that’s stood in the center of Kyiv’ Biden defends his foreign policy legacy in speech to State Department, emphasizing America’s alliances and success in weakening Russia and other U.S. adversaries

On Monday, Joe Biden addressed members of the U.S. State Department, summarizing what he considers his administration’s biggest foreign policy accomplishments. The outgoing president stressed the importance of America’s alliances and repeatedly argued that he has strengthened the United States on the world stage (the word “stronger” appears 11 times in his remarks). Biden also addressed America’s growing confrontation with Russia, commenting on “Russia” eight times, “Putin” seven times, and “Ukraine” 11 times. Here are the noteworthy excerpts pertaining to these themes:

The Ukraine War

When Putin invaded Ukraine, he thought he'd conquer Kyiv in a matter of days. But the truth is, since that war began, I'm the only one that’s stood in the center of Kyiv, not him. Putin never has. Think about it. 

It was a long train ride, but I'm the only commander-in-chief to visit a war zone not controlled by U.S. forces. We helped [the] Ukrainians stop Putin. And now, nearly three years later, Putin has failed to achieve any of his strategic objectives. He has failed thus far to subjugate Ukraine, failed to break the unity of NATO, and failed to make large territorial gains.

There's more to do. We can't walk away. We rallied 50 nations to stand with Ukraine, not just in Europe but for the first time in Asia, as well. Because those countries in Asia know what happens in Ukraine matters to , as well. We delivered air interceptors, massive numbers of munitions, [and] enacted relentless, unprecedented sanctions to keep Ukraine in the fight.

And now Russia is struggling to replace what they are losing on the battlefield in terms of military equipment and fighters. And the ruble is under enormous pressure.

As I saw it, when Putin launched his invasion, I had two jobs: One, to rally the world to defend Ukraine, and the other is to avoid war between two nuclear powers. We did both those things.

Today, Ukraine is still a free, independent country with the potential — the potential — for a bright future. And we laid the foundation for the next administration so they can protect the bright future of the Ukrainian people.

Syria and the Axis of ‘Major Authoritarian States’

And if you want more evidence that we've seriously weakened Iran and Russia, just take a look at Syria. President Assad was both countries' closest ally in the Middle East. Neither could keep him in power. Quite frankly, neither really tried very hard.

Now, I cannot claim credit for every factor that led to Iran and Russia growing weaker in the past four years. They did plenty of damage all by themselves. But Israel did plenty of damage to Iran and its proxies. But there's no question: our actions contributed significantly.

And now major authoritarian states are aligning more closely with one another: Iran, Russia, China, [and] North Korea. But that's more out of weakness than out of strength.

Withdrawing from Afghanistan and negotiating the prisoner swap

And by ending the war [in Afghanistan], we've been able to focus our energy and resources on more urgent challenges. There is nothing — I can tell you from my conversations with both Xi and Putin — nothing our adversaries and competitors, like Russia and China, would have liked more than seeing us continue to be tied down in Afghanistan for another decade. For all those reasons, ending the war was the right thing to do. And I believe history will reflect that.

And from the moment I entered office, I also worked to free as many Americans as possible [who were] being held hostage and wrongfully detained overseas. We brought home more than 75 Americans by last count. In some cases, it took months, even years of effort, like the prisoner swap with Russia over the past summer. A feat of diplomacy involving all many of you and involving multiple countries who joined complex negotiations at our request — another example of the power of our alliances. If we did not have these relationships, those men and women would likely still be in prison.