Antony Blinken likely to be nominated as Secretary of State under Biden administration

Antony J Blinken, one of President-elect Joe Biden's closest foreign policy advisors, is expected to be nominated as Secretary of State in the incoming Biden administration, succeeding President Donald Trump's top aide Micheal Pompeo.

As the new Secretary of State, Blinken is likely to attempt to unite sceptical international partners into a renewed competition with China, according to people close to the process, reported New York Times.

Blinken, 58, has been regarded as one of the leading candidates to run the State Department, having served as Deputy Secretary of State under former President Barack Obama.

He is also a guitar aficionado. He began his career at the State Department during the Clinton administration. His extensive foreign policy credentials are expected to help calm American diplomats and global leaders alike after four years of the Trump administration's ricocheting strategies.

He has been at Biden's side for nearly 20 years, including as his top aide on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and later as Biden's national security adviser when the latter was US vice-president.

According to New York Times, Blinken, a defender of global alliances, helped develop the American response to political upheaval and ensuing instability across the Middle East, with mixed results in Egypt, Iraq, Syria and Libya, and has also sought to lessen refugee crises and migration.

During a forum at the Hudson Institute in July, Blinken said that working with other countries could have added benefit of competing with China by choosing multilateral efforts to advance trade, technology investments and human rights, instead of forcing individual nations to choose between the two superpowers' economies.

In August, during a panel discussion moderated by US former envoy to India Richard Verma, Blinken said that the Biden administration would be an advocate for India to play a leading role in international institutions and that includes helping India get a permanent seat on the reformed United Nations Security Council.

He said that India and the US have a common challenge which has to deal with an increasingly assertive China across the board, including using aggression toward New Delhi at the Line of Actual Control and using its economic might to coerce others and reap unfair advantage.

"We have a common challenge which has to deal with an increasingly assertive China across the board, including its aggression toward India at the Line of Actual Control but also using its economic might to coerce others and reap unfair advantage. Ignoring international rules to advance its own interests asserting unfounded maritime and territorial claims that threaten freedom of navigation in some of the most important seas in the world," he said.

He further added that Biden sees the US and India as 'natural partners', and that would be the vision he would help make real if elected as the president.

During the panel discussion, Blinken also mentioned that under the Obama-Biden administration, Washington had made significant progress in strengthening the relationship between the two countries, both under then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Chief among Blinken's new policies will be to re-establish the US as a trusted ally that is ready to rejoin global agreements and institutions, including the Paris climate accord, the Iran nuclear deal and the World Health Orgsation (WHO), which were discarded by Trump, according to New York Times.

Apart from Blinken, Biden is also expected to name Jake Sullivan, one of Hillary Clinton's closest aides, as the national security advisor, according to sources.

Earlier this month, Biden had announced that he has chosen Ron Klain as his chief of staff, his first public choice for the White House.

( With inputs from ANI )