Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, assembly with counterparts from each China and Russia on Friday, mentioned that the United States would “push back forcefully” in opposition to breakers of worldwide guidelines, at the same time as he acknowledged his personal nation’s violations underneath the Trump administration.
Mr. Blinken’s counterparts, Foreign Ministers Wang Yi of China and Sergey V. Lavrov of Russia, took their very own diplomatic swipes on the United States, accusing it of hypocrisy and of defining worldwide guidelines in phrases designed to say Western dominance in the world.
The exchanges got here at a United Nations Security Council assembly, convened by China and held nearly through videoconference hyperlink, on the theme of multilateral cooperation in opposition to the pandemic, world warming and different widespread threats.
It was in some methods a rematch between Mr. Blinken and Mr. Wang, who was a part of a prime Chinese delegation that brusquely lectured the United States at a gathering in Alaska two months in the past. That unscripted confrontation was regarded heroically in China, the place the federal government has stoked rising anti-Americanism and nationalism.
Although the phrases and tone used in the Friday assembly had been extra diplomatic, the variations had been stark in the world views espoused by Mr. Blinken and his counterparts. Those variations prompt that the gridlock among the many huge powers of the Security Council wouldn’t ease anytime quickly.
The session was held the identical week that Mr. Blinken, assembly with the international ministers of the Group of seven nations in Britain, emphasised what he described because the significance of “defending democratic values and open societies” — a sign of the Biden administration’s intent to problem China and Russia on human rights, disinformation and different points that had been de-emphasized or ignored by the administration of President Donald J. Trump.
In one other clear sign from the Biden administration, Mr. Blinken also visited Ukraine, the place he pledged help for its struggle in opposition to a Russian-backed insurgency that has claimed 13,000 lives since 2014.
Mr. Blinken asserted in his Security Council remarks that the United Nations remained a important power for good in the world, accountable since its founding on the finish of World War II for probably the most peaceable and affluent period in trendy historical past, however was now underneath extreme menace.
“Nationalism is resurgent, repression is rising, rivalries among countries are deepening — and attacks against the rules-based order are intensifying,” Mr. Blinken mentioned. “Some question whether multilateral cooperation is still possible. The United States believes it is not only possible, but imperative.”
Mr. Blinken mentioned the United States would work with any nation on the worldwide threats offered by the coronavirus and local weather change, “including those with whom we have serious differences.”
At the identical time, he mentioned, in a transparent warning to China and Russia, that the United State would “push back forcefully when we see countries undermine the international order, pretend that the rules we’ve all agreed to don’t exist, or simply violate them at will.”
He didn’t lay out any new positions however clearly sought to emphasise that the Biden administration was dedicated to reversing the foreign-policy legacy of President Donald J. Trump, who often disparaged the United Nations and led the United States down what critics known as a harmful, unilateral path.
“I know that some of our actions in recent years have undermined the rules-based order and led others to question whether we are still committed to it,” Mr. Blinken mentioned. “Rather than take our word for it, we ask the world to judge our commitment by our actions.”
He enumerated how the Biden administration had rejoined the Paris Climate accord, halted Mr. Trump’s withdrawal from the World Health Organization and was seeking to rejoin the U.N. Human Rights Council.
“We’re also taking steps, with great humility, to address the inequities and injustices in our own democracy,” he mentioned. “We do so openly and transparently, for people around the world to see. Even when it’s ugly. Even when it’s painful.”
Mr. Wang, whose nation holds the rotating Security Council presidency for May, sought to depict China as a accountable world citizen that adhered to worldwide legislation. Without mentioning the United States by identify, he chided international locations that he mentioned had outlined worldwide guidelines as a “patent or privilege of the few.”
He additionally declared that “no country should expect other countries to lose,” reflecting a Chinese accusation that the United States is in search of to suppress China’s ascendance — an accusation that Mr. Blinken and others have denied.
Mr. Lavrov was extra direct in his criticisms of the United States and its allies, describing Mr. Blinken’s references to a “rules-based order” as a guise for Western efforts to repress different international locations.
He was particularly important of the economic sanctions that the United States and European Union have imposed on Russia and others they disagree with, which Mr. Lavrov mentioned had been designed to “take opponents out of the game.”
