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US President-elect Joe Biden has picked veteran diplomat and his long-time adviser Antony Blinken as the United States secretary of state designate. Joe Biden's first wave of Cabinet picks were expected to be announced on Tuesday, 24 November, amid the thick of ongoing obstruction to the political transition process from sitting president Donald Trump.
Kamala Harris, who will be the Vice President, described Blinken as "crisis-tested" and among the "best of America".
Antony Blinken served as Joe Biden’s National Security Advisor when the latter was the Vice-President during the Obama administration.
Born in New York, 58-year-old Blinken practiced law briefly and entered politics in the late 1980s. He had helped Democrat Michael Dukakis' presidential campaign raise money, reported Reuters. Following this, Blinken joined Democratic President Bill Clinton’s White House as a speechwriter and became one of his national security aides.
Blinken was elevated to the post of Deputy Secretary of State in the second term of the Obama administration. Following the Obama administration, Blinken co-founded WestExec Advisors, a political strategy firm, with a top Obama-era Pentagon official, Michele Flournoy, reported Bloomberg.
Considered a ‘strong India-hand’, Blinken had spoken during the virtual celebration of India's Independence Day organised by the Biden Campaign. During the event, Blinken reportedly said that Biden has long been a champion of stronger ties with India.
"But if you go back 15 years, Joe Biden had a vision for the future of US-India relations. In 2006, he said, my dream is that in 2020, the two closest nations in the world will be India and the United States,” he had said, reported PTI. Blinken had reportedly added:
While speaking at the Hudson Institute in July 2020, Blinken had reportedly said that India is "fair, stable, and hopefully increasingly democratic and it's vital to being able to tackle some of these big global challenges." He also addressed the differences Biden has with India over Kashmir and the Citizenship (Amendment) Act during the same event and said,
The Citizenship (Amendment) Act could still crop up as a sore topic between the Biden and Modi governments.
Jake Sullivan, a former close aide of Hillary Clinton, has been nominated as the National Security Adviser. Forty-three-year-old Sullivan has also reportedly served a stint as Joe Biden’s National Security Adviser when he was vice president.
Another key designation was of former Secretary of State John Kerry as the special presidential envoy for climate and as a member of the National Security Council, highlighting the high-level of importance Biden places on environment.
Alejandro Mayorkas is the designee for Secretary of Homeland Security, Avril Haines for Director of National Intelligence, and Linda Thomas-Greenfield as permanent representative to the United Nations with cabinet rank.
Biden said in televised remarks last week that he has already decided on his Treasury pick, someone who will be agreeable "for both the moderate and progressive sides of the party."
(With inputs from IANS)
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