Democratic US President Joe Biden, who announced in July that he was ending his campaign for a second term in the White House, is set to deliver his last major speech from the UN podium in New York today, starting at 10:00 a.m. (local time; 17:00 Greek time).

The discussions at the UN are expected to be dominated by the escalation in Lebanon, which no appeal from Washington for calm has prevented or seems to be able to prevent.

He will also meet with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres later in the day, and is also expected to make two more statements, one against synthetic drugs, another on the climate.

The American president has not stopped saying, after the attack by the Hamas military arm in southern Israel on October 7th, that his aim is not to spread the war in the region, not to have a regional ignition.

For her part, Kamala Harris has been tight-lipped about her foreign policy plans.

However, everything shows that he will roughly follow the same directions as Joe Biden.

Biden also assures that his legacy will not begin to unravel if Donald Trump returns to power.

In the few weeks remaining, the American president wants, as his adviser put it, to ensure that initiatives taken during his presidency, especially at the international level, will prove, as much as possible, “irreversible”.

“When he took office, almost four years ago, he promised to restore America’s international standing” and its leadership role, his spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said yesterday.

Since then, he has listed, restored US alliances in Asia, led the international response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, strengthened NATO, made moves for the country to regain its lead over China, and more.

White House communications director Ben LaBolt referred in a memo to the outgoing administration’s “final sprint” through January to lay “the foundation for the future.”

But in New York, Joe Biden, who generally praises the virtues of dialogue and brags about his diplomatic skills, is facing the limits of his influence.

In the shadow of Trump

Donald Trump, for his part, has promised that in the event of his electoral victory, he will proceed to impose much heavier tariffs on imported products, above all on Chinese products.

He also assures – generally and vaguely – that he will easily solve the problem of the war in Ukraine and the Middle East.

The Republican, who portrays the outgoing president as a weak leader partly responsible for international crises, has made statements not exactly friendly to US NATO allies.

His resolutely pro-hydrocarbon rhetoric has many fearing the worst when it comes to international cooperation to prevent climate change.

Over the weekend, Joe Biden sought to reassure the leaders of Japan, Australia and India, the countries with which the US has formed the Quad, a four-party alliance that is “here to stay”, which will remain true ” well beyond November.”

On Thursday he will welcome Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is worried about the future of US support in his country.

Other foreign leaders have no intention of opening their cards when it comes to the future.

Some will use their trip to the US for contacts with the presidential candidates.

The Republican former president has so far announced that he will have a meeting with India’s federal prime minister, Narendra Modi. Ukrainian President Zelensky, who will see Ms Harris the day after Thursday, also wants to meet with him.