Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield Gives an Update from UNGA

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: Would you urge your president not to shake hands with Bolsonaro, and not just as a petty gesture, as a diplomatic gesture to show that enough, enough on this?

LINDA THOMAS-GREENFIELD, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS: Well, you will notice, if you see pictures of us in — at the United Nations, that we’re doing elbow bumps, we’re doing fist bumps, we’re putting our hands on our hearts. There’s very little shaking of hands. But if we do somehow shake hands, there is hand sanitizer everywhere. And people are being encouraged to use it.

AMANPOUR: So, let me ask you about the other substance, because COVID is clearly substance. President Biden saying we’re not going to a new cold war with China. We want to lead. We want to work with alliances. President Xi saying in his tape to dress that, don’t talk to us about democracy. Democracy is not just the preserve of one country. The Iranian president, himself sanctioned, one of the biggest violators on the international stage of human rights, talking about American tyranny and mentioning the anti-democratic forces that stormed the Capitol on January 6. Where do you see the United States being able to lead here? And are you concerned that there is a growing dysfunction between all these big power centers?

THOMAS-GREENFIELD: Their views were predictable. It is not something that we didn’t expect. But our view is that the values of democracy stand strong. And President Biden displayed that very, very aggressively at the United Nations, noting that we’re going to lead with diplomacy, with our values, and we are going to lead by our example. We don’t run away from our shortcomings. We acknowledge those. But we know that we are stronger as a nation if we stand with other democracies and stand with our allies. And that’s the position that we took at the United Nations. It’s the position that President Biden laid out very, very strongly in his speech. And I will tell you that his speech was well-received by all of the countries that we have engaged with. He got resounding applause for the speech that he gave. And our return to the multilateral stage was most welcomed.