President Biden kicked off his last week in office on Monday trying to sell the American public on his foreign policy agenda, arguing that the U.S. became stronger under his administration.

The speech was the first of two farewell addresses Mr. Biden scheduled this week to promote his legacy as he departs office amid historically low approval ratings and public fatigue, with crises raging across the globe from Ukraine to the Middle East to China.

A second speech is scheduled for Wednesday and will be a prime-time address from the White House.

In remarks delivered from the State Department, Mr. Biden offered a full-throated defense of his foreign policy initiatives, saying he rejuvenated alliances and kept America out of war.

“Thanks to our administration, the United States is winning the worldwide competition compared to four years ago,” Mr. Biden said. “Our alliances are stronger, our adversaries and competitors are weaker. We have not gone to war to make these things happen.”

Polls show that Mr. Biden received rave reviews from Europeans, but Americans still remain sour on his foreign agenda.

A Gallup poll released Monday found that among 30 NATO allies, approval of the U.S. rose in all but four since 2020, when Mr. Trump left office. Approval ratings even rose by double digits in 20 of the 30 countries.

It’s a different story in the U.S. as Mr. Biden prepares to exit office with a 37% approval rating, one of the lowest in modern history. According to an aggregate of polls by Real Clear Politics, 60% of Americans disapproved of Mr. Biden’s handling of foreign conflicts while in office, while only 36.5% approved.

During his tenure, Mr. Biden has failed to achieve a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, and fighting last year extended into Lebanon via Iran’s proxies. In Ukraine’s war, U.S.-supplied missiles have struck targets in Russia in an escalation of the fighting, and Moscow is now using North Korean troops to bolster its forces.

Mr. Biden ticked off a litany of what he views as his success on the world stage. He boasted that he repaired a fractured NATO alliance to stand up to Russian aggression, confronted China’s expansionist desires in the South Pacific, and took on Iran to stop the Middle East from exploding into an even larger conflict.

Russia, China and Iran are all weaker today than when he came into office, Mr. Biden told the crowd. He said that U.S. adversaries such as China, Russia, and North Korea are aligning with each other “out of weakness rather than out of strength.”

Mr. Biden said he’s leaving President-elect Donald Trump a more secure world than Mr. Trump left him in 2021.

“It’s clear my administration is leaving the next administration with a very strong hand to play and we’re leaving them and America more friends and strong alliances whose adversaries are weaker and under pressure,” he said.

The rosy speech whitewashed some of Mr. Biden’s largest foreign blunders, which some critics claimed resulted in a world aflame.

Mr. Biden’s approval rating never recovered from his bungling the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. The move, which culminated in the deaths of 13 U.S. service members during a terror attack, raised questions about his competency, especially after administration officials refused to accept any responsibility for the outcome that left the country in the hands of the Taliban.

On Monday, Mr. Biden tried to defend the widely criticized withdrawal, saying it moved thousands of U.S. troops out of harm’s way. He said all Americans grieve the 2,461 lives lost during the 20-year war in Afghanistan. However, he did not acknowledge the 13 soldiers who were killed in August 2021 during the chaotic withdrawal.

Criticism of Mr. Biden’s foreign policy extends beyond Afghanistan. He had come under fire for being caught flat-footed in the days before Hamas launched its Oct. 7, 2023 terror attack against Israel. Roughly a week before the attack, national security adviser Jake Sullivan said the Middle East was the safest it had been in a long time.

Mr. Biden has also faced criticism for being too cautious ahead of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and failing to devise a winning strategy in the region beyond committing more than $100 billion in U.S. taxpayer-funded aid to the war-torn country.

• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.