U.S. President Joe Biden used his first address before the UN General Assembly on Tuesday to declare that the world stands and at an “inflection point in history” and must move quickly and co-operatively to address the festering issues of the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change and human rights abuse.

Without mentioning China directly, Biden acknowledged increasing concerns about rising tensions between the two economic and military powers. But he said, “We are not seeking a new Cold War or a world divided into rigid blocks.”

The president noted his decision to end America’s longest war last month, in Afghanistan, and set the