Foreign policy figured highly in Joe Biden’s annual address to Congress, which highlighted US involvement in conflicts around the world. So how was his speech received in those places?
It was notable that the president chose to begin his State of the Union by discussing Ukraine. He later went on to spend a few minutes on the Israel-Hamas war and finished by talking about “standing up” to China.
We asked three BBC correspondents to analyse his comments in each area.
Nazi comparison will annoy Putin
By Sarah Rainsford, Eastern Europe correspondent
A year before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, President Biden agreed with an interviewer that Vladimir Putin was a “killer”, enraging the Kremlin. Three years later, Mr Biden has now compared him to Adolf Hitler.
In his State of the Union address, he referred to Hitler being “on the march” in 1941 in Europe and then said that the Russian leader was “on the march” himself, warning that Russian aggression would not stop at Ukraine.
His message to President Putin, he said in his speech, was simple. “We will not bow down.”
The Russian leader has claimed, falsely, that his invasion of Ukraine is aimed at “de-Nazifying” Russia’s neighbour and he has elevated the Soviet Union’s defeat of Hitler in World War II to near-cult status. So Moscow won’t like this comparison at all.
But Mr Biden wasn’t addressing Russia alone. He stressed the urgent need for the US to continue supporting Ukraine as it battles to defend itself and he called on Congress to unblock the bill that would release the funding Kyiv needs.
I’ve heard politicians and analysts in Ukraine describe losing US financial backing as “catastrophic”. The delay is already damaging, forcing soldiers to ration ammunition on the frontlines.
As Moscow smarts at the comparison with Nazi Germany, Ukraine will welcome a State of the Union speech that opened with a rallying cry for democracy and support for Kyiv. President Biden said the US wouldn’t “walk away”.
Such words are important and appreciated. But similar calls have been uttered before and all the time Ukraine is losing more territory and more soldiers.