Former Vice President Joe Biden said he would "respect no borders" when it came to foreign policy, while speaking Thursday at an event in New York City.
"Working cooperatively with other nations to share our values and goals doesn't make America, as it seems to imply in this administration, suckers," Biden said. "It makes us more secure. Enables us to be more successful. We amplify our own strengths, extend our presence around the globe, magnify our impact while sharing the burden of leadership with our partners."
Biden added that the United States is unable to face global problems on it own and promised to partner with other countries if elected president.
"I respect no borders and cannot be contained by any walls," he said. "As president, I will do more than just restore the historic partnerships. I'll lead an effort to re-imagine them, to better meet the challenges we’re grappling with today in the next 20 or 30 years, to keep NATO military capability sharp, while also expanding our capacity to take on non-traditional threats like weaponized corruption, cyber theft, new challenges in space and on the high seas."
Biden also criticized President Donald Trump elsewhere in his speech, saying Trump's "erratic policies and failures to uphold basic democratic principles have muddled our reputation and our place in the world, and I think, quite frankly, our ability to lead the world."
Biden has come under fire from former members of the Obama-era. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who in the past three months has twice re-affirmed his 2014 statement that he thinks Biden has "been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades." Gates also said in June he will have to "wait and see" if Biden is fit to serve as commander in chief.
Biden has spoken previously of a borderless future, saying in May the United States should provide Medicare and Medicaid to otherwise law-abiding undocumented immigrants.
"Look, I think that anyone who is in a situation where they are in need of health care, regardless of whether they are documented or undocumented, we have an obligation to see that they are cared for," Biden said. "That's why I think we need more clinics in this country."
"By the way a significant portion of undocumented folks in this country are there because they overstayed their visas," he continued. "It's not people breaking down gates coming across the border, so the biggest thing we got to do on this thing is tone down the rhetoric. We know why it's happening. It's to create fear and concern."