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The Senate voted on Tuesday 78-22 to confirm Antony Blinken as the next secretary of state – who will be a key figure in President Biden’s efforts to restore alliances across the world and forge a new approach to foreign policy.
This makes Blinken the 71st Secretary of State. He succeeds Mike Pompeo as the principal American diplomat.
Blinken, who has worked for the Senate and the Clinton and Obama administrations, said his priorities were building the diplomatic corps and revitalizing grassroots alliances.
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Blinken, 58, was a staff member of President Bill Clinton’s National Security Council from 1994 to 2001. He began his long relationship with Biden in 2002 when he became Democratic personnel director of the US Senate Committee on Relations foreign countries, where Biden was president. .
When Biden became vice president in 2009, Blinken also joined the administration as Biden’s national security adviser and was later promoted to President Obama’s deputy national security adviser.
Blinken was confirmed once by the Senate on December 16, 2014, when Obama appointed Blinken as Assistant Secretary of State under John Kerry. The vote was 55-38.
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He earned bipartisan praise for his long expertise in foreign policy and for his responses in a smooth confirmation hearing on January 19, 2021. However, critics accused him of being on the wrong side on key policy issues. foreign.
He was Biden’s advisor when the then senator supported the Iraq war – something Biden later called a mistake. Blinken is also said to have supported military action in Libya and pushed the United States to be more aggressive in Syria.
“I think it would be a serious mistake to confirm a Secretary of State who has a proven track record of repeatedly making the wrong decisions in US foreign and national security policy,” said Senator John Barrasso, R- Wyo., At Blinken’s confirmation hearing.
Blinken will play a key role in reversing much of President Donald Trump’s foreign policy decisions and taking a more multilateral approach to foreign policy issues. Biden has vowed to return to the Iran nuclear deal, from which President Trump has withdrawn, to reestablish relations with Cuba, and to push for a new START nuclear deal with Russia.
However, Blinken said last week that Trump was right to take a stronger stance on China.
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“President Trump was right to take a tougher approach on China,” Blinken said. “Not the way he went about it in many ways, but the rule of thumb was right.”
He also supported the Abrahamic Accords – a number of agreements normalizing relations between Israel and the Arab states.
Already Biden has ended the American withdrawal from the World Health Organization and reinstated the Paris climate agreement.
Marisa Schultz and The Associated Press of Fox News contributed to this report.
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