Biden to name Blinken as US top diplomat: report

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(FILES) In this file photo US President-elect Joe Biden speaks after a meeting with governors in Wilmington, Delaware, on November 19, 2020. – US President-elect Joe Biden will name on November 24, 2020 the first picks to be part of his administration, his chief of staff said on November 22, 2020, declining to say what positions will be announced. “You are going to see the first of the president-elect’s cabinet picks on Tuesday of this week,” Biden’s chief of staff Ron Klain told ABC. “You’ll have to wait for president-elect to say that himself on Tuesday.” (Photo by JIM WATSON / AFP)

 

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — President-elect Joe Biden plans to nominate veteran diplomat Antony Blinken as his secretary of state, a decision likely to signal a return to multilateralism after Donald Trump’s shunning of traditional allies, US media reported Sunday.

The 58-year-old Blinken, a former deputy secretary of state under Barack Obama, is also a longtime aide to Biden.

Bloomberg and The New York Times reported the plan to nominate him. Biden is expected to announce the decision on Tuesday.

(FILES) In this file photo taken on June 20, 2016 US Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken takes part in a naturalization ceremony on World Refugee Day in recognition of those who have come to the US with refugee or asylum seeker status, at the US Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC. – President-elect Joe Biden plans to nominate veteran diplomat Antony Blinken as his secretary of state, a decision likely to signal a return to multilateralism after Donald Trump’s shunning of traditional allies, US media reported November 22, 2020. (Photo by Mandel NGAN / AFP)

Blinken, if confirmed by the US Senate, would replace Mike Pompeo, whose priorities have included a more confrontational approach to China and containing Iran.

Blinken’s appointment as the country’s top diplomat could help reassure the United States’ traditional allies who have been shunned and at times insulted by Trump.


© Agence France-Presse