Senate Confirms Antony Blinken As 71st Secretary Of State

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate on Tuesday confirmed Antony Blinken as America’s high diplomat, tasked with finishing up President Joe Biden’s dedication to reverse the Trump administration’s “America First” doctrine that weakened worldwide alliances.

Senators voted 78-22 to approve Blinken, a longtime Biden confidant, because the nation’s 71st secretary of state, succeeding Mike Pompeo. The place is essentially the most senior Cabinet place, with the secretary fourth within the line of presidential succession.

Blinken, 58, served as deputy secretary of state and deputy nationwide safety adviser throughout the Obama administration. He has pledged to be a number one pressure within the administration’s bid to reframe the U.S. relationship with the remainder of the world after 4 years through which President Donald Trump questioned longtime alliances. He is anticipated to start out work on Wednesday after being sworn in, in keeping with State Department officers.

“American leadership still matters,” Blinken instructed the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at his Jan. 19 affirmation listening to. “The reality is, the world simply does not organize itself. When we’re not engaged, when we’re not leading, then one of two things is likely to happen. Either some other country tries to take our place, but not in a way that’s likely to advance our interests and values, or maybe just as bad, no one does and then you have chaos.”

Blinken vowed that the Biden administration would strategy the world with each humility and confidence, saying “we have a great deal of work to do at home to enhance our standing abroad.”

Despite promising renewed American management and an emphasis on shoring up strained ties with allies in Europe and Asia, Blinken instructed lawmakers that he agreed with lots of Trump’s international coverage initiatives. He backed the so-called Abraham Accords, which normalized relations between Israel and several other Arab states, and a tricky stance on China over human rights and its assertiveness within the South China Sea.

He did, nevertheless, sign that the Biden administration is excited by bringing Iran again into compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal from which Trump withdrew in 2018.

Trump’s secretaries of state nominees met with important opposition from Democrats. Trump’s first nominee for the job, former ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson, was authorized by a 56 to 43 vote and served solely 13 months earlier than Trump fired him in tweet. His successor, Pompeo, was confirmed in a 57-42 vote.

Opposition to Blinken centered on Iran coverage and issues amongst conservatives that he’ll abandon Trump’s “maximum pressure” marketing campaign towards Iran.

Blinken inherits a deeply demoralized and depleted profession workforce on the State Department. Neither Tillerson nor Pompeo supplied sturdy resistance to the Trump administration’s makes an attempt to intestine the company, which have been thwarted solely by congressional intervention.

Although the division escaped proposed cuts of greater than 30% of its finances for 3 consecutive years, it has seen a big variety of departures from its senior and rising mid-level ranks, Many diplomats opted to retire or depart the international service given restricted prospects for development underneath an administration that they believed didn’t worth their experience.

A graduate of Harvard University and Columbia Law School and a longtime Democratic international coverage presence, Blinken has aligned himself with quite a few former senior nationwide safety officers who’ve referred to as for a significant reinvestment in American diplomacy and renewed emphasis on international engagement.

Blinken served on the National Security Council throughout the Clinton administration earlier than turning into employees director for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee when Biden was chair of the panel. In the early years of the Obama administration, Blinken returned to the NSC and was then-Vice President Biden’s nationwide safety adviser earlier than he moved to the State Department to function deputy to Secretary of State John Kerry, who’s now serving as particular envoy for local weather change.