Biden’s UN speech barely mentioned Russia and China. That’s no coincidence | Rajan Menon and Daniel R DePetris

Biden was pitching global cooperation to developing nations long suspicious of the US-dominated world order

Every September, the annual UN general assembly session offers global leaders a prime opportunity to publicize their top priorities to an international audience - precisely what President Joe Biden did on the conclave's opening day this week.

As Biden approached the podium, the representatives of China and Russia may have braced for an earful: Russia's invasion of Ukraine has produced Europe's deadliest war in more than 70 years; and tensions over Taiwan, the South China Sea and trade have made blame-laden volleys between China and the US routine. As it turned out, however, Biden's half-hour speech barely mentioned the US's two biggest rivals.

Rajan Menon is the director of the grand strategy program at Defense Priorities, a professor emeritus of international relations at the City College of New York, and a senior research scholar at Columbia University's Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies

Daniel R DePetris is a fellow at Defense Priorities and a syndicated foreign affairs columnist for the Chicago Tribune and Newsweek