The Senate on Tuesday voted 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 around the world and forge a new approach to foreign policy.
This makes Blinken the 71st secretary of state. He succeeds Mike Pompeo as America’s top diplomat.
Blinken, who worked for the Senate and the Clinton and Obama administrations, said his priorities are to build the diplomatic corps and revitalize central alliances.
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Blinken, 58, was a member of President Bill Clinton’s National Security Council team from 1994 to 2001. He began his long relationship with Biden in 2002, when he became the Democratic director of the United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where Biden served as president.
When Biden became vice president in 2009, Blinken also joined the government 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 to become John Kerry’s deputy secretary of state. The vote was 55-38.
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He won bipartisan praise for his long experience in foreign policy and for his responses during a confirmation hearing on January 19, 2021. However, critics accused him of being on the wrong side on important foreign policy issues.
He was Biden’s adviser when the then senator supported the Iraq War – something Biden later called an error. Blinken also reportedly supported military action in Libya and pushed for 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 making wrong decisions over and over with regard to American foreign policy and national security,” said Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., During the hearing. Blinken’s confirmation.
Blinken will play a key role in reversing many of President Donald Trump’s foreign policy movements and take a more multilateralist approach to foreign policy issues. Biden promised to resume the nuclear deal with Iran, from which President Trump withdrew, reestablish relations with Cuba and push for a new START nuclear deal with Russia.
However, Blinken said last week that Trump was right to take a tougher stance on China.
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“President Trump was right to take a tougher approach to China,” said Blinken. “Not in the way he did it in many ways, but the basic principle was right.”
He also supported the Abraham Accords – a series of agreements that normalize relations between Israel and the Arab countries.
Biden has already halted the US withdrawal from the World Health Organization and has re-entered the Paris climate deal.
Fox News’s Marisa Schultz and The Associated Press contributed to this report.