UNITED NATIONS (AP) – Linda Thomas-Greenfield assumes her post as US ambassador to the United Nations on Thursday and a Russian diplomat said the red carpet will be rolled out and Moscow is ready to work with the Biden government – but “it is necessary two to dance the tango. “
After being inducted on Wednesday by Vice President Kamala Harris, Thomas-Greenfield went to New York, where he is expected to present his credentials to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday afternoon.
She will take up her new role, dealing with global peace and security issues with Russia, China and a dozen other countries, as the United States takes over the rotating presidency of the powerful UN Security Council on Monday. And she may even decide to attend a board meeting on Friday.
“We are looking forward to interacting with her,” Russia’s deputy ambassador to the UN, Dmitry Polyansky, told a group of reporters on Wednesday. “You can count on our most favorable attitudes and positive emotions towards her as a member of our family on the Security Council.”
Looking at Thomas-Greenfield’s decades as a US diplomat, he said that “it is always easier to interact with professionals”.
But he said that the United States’ view that Russia is “an enemy” and a “threat” has not changed under Biden, so “it is very difficult to imagine how interaction with us can change with these starting points of the new government’s positions . “
However, Polyansky said, “there are many things that Russia and the United States can do together” and “we will judge the new government by what it does”.
“We are in favor of cooperation,” he said. But “it takes two to dance the tango and we are really ready to dance, but we need a good and reliable partner who knows all the moves and who respects us” as a country with certain positions, “does not see us as a threat” and sees “our obvious national interests on many issues”.
Thomas-Greenfield, a 35-year-old retired veteran of the U.S. foreign service who once served as assistant secretary of state for Africa, resigned during the Trump administration. She will be the third African-American and the second African-American to hold the position at the UN.
His confirmation on Tuesday was welcomed by Democrats and United Nations advocates, who lamented former President Donald Trump’s “America First” unilateral approach to international affairs and welcomed President Joe Biden’s return to multilateralism.
At the Senate hearing on his nomination, Thomas-Greenfield called China “a strategic adversary” that threatens the world and classified a speech she made in 2019 that praised China’s initiatives in Africa, but did not mention human rights abuses as a mistake.
The Senate voted 78-20 to confirm it with Republican opponents, saying it was lenient with China and would not defend US principles at the UN
Thomas-Greenfield said at the hearing that Washington will work not just with the allies “but to see where we can find common ground with the Russians and the Chinese to put more pressure on the Iranians to push them back into strict compliance” with 2015 agreement to control its nuclear program. Trump withdrew the U.S. from the deal in 2018 and Biden indicated that the U.S. will join him, although how that might happen is still an important issue.
Polyansky said Russia welcomes the “” positive developments “in the nuclear deal with Iran and the US agreement to extend the START nuclear deal, adding that Moscow is ready for serious and meaningful discussions” first in the area of strategic stability ” .
Thomas-Greenfield emphasized at the audience that the United States will engage internationally and promote American values - “support for democracy, respect for universal human rights and the promotion of peace and security”.
Louis Charbonneau, United Nations director for Human Rights Watch, told the Associated Press that Thomas-Greenfield should promote human rights as “a top priority”.
“She should abandon the Trump administration’s selective approach to human rights – enthusiastically condemning the abuses of its enemies while ignoring violations of the rights of allies like Israel and Saudi Arabia,” he said.
“But there is room for continuity in China and Syria,” said Charbonneau. “It must make expanding the coalition of nations willing to speak out against Beijing’s human rights abuses one of its main goals at the UN, over and above trying to bring African, Asian and Latin American countries into the fold. And it must continue to push for greater humanitarian access to all parts of Syria. ”