China, North Korea loom as Blinken, Austin head to Asia.Threats from China and North Korea will loom large over the Biden administration’s first Cabinet-level trip abroad, part of a larger effort to bolster U.S. influence and calm concerns about America’s role in Asia.
China, North Korea loom as Blinken, Austin head to Asia.Threats from China and North Korea will loom large over the Biden administration’s first Cabinet-level trip abroad, part of a larger effort to bolster U.S. influence and calm concerns about America’s role in Asia.
(1 of 3) State Secretary Antony Blinken speaks during a news conference at the State Department in Washington. Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin are heading to Japan and South Korea for four days of talks starting Monday, March 15, as the administration seeks to shore up partnerships with the two key regional treaty allies.
(2 of 3) Secretary of State Antony Blinken, left, is visible as President Joe Biden, right, holds a virtual meeting with Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington. Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin are heading to Japan and South Korea for four days of talks starting Monday, March 15, as the administration seeks to shore up partnerships with the two key regional treaty allies.
(3 of 3) Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin listens to a question as he speaks during a media briefing at the Pentagon in Washington. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Austin are heading to Japan and South Korea for four days of talks starting Monday, March 15, as the administration seeks to shore up partnerships with the two key regional treaty allies.
March 14, 2021
A senior administration official said Saturday that U.S. officials have tried to reach out to North Korea through multiple channels since last month, but have yet to receive a response. That makes consultations with the reclusive country’s neighbors, Japan, South Korea and China, all the more critical.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin are heading to Japan and South Korea for four days of talks starting Monday as the new administration tries to shore up partnerships with the two key regional allies. Blinken and Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, will meet with Chinese officials in Anchorage, Alaska, on Thursday.
The Cabinet members’ Asia trip is intended to restore what Biden hopes will be a calming and even-keeled approach to ties with Tokyo and Seoul after four years of transactional and often temperamental relations under Donald Trump. He had upended diplomatic norms by meeting not once, but three times, with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Blinken and Austin also plan virtual meetings with journalists, civil-society members and others. After reassuring their counterparts of U.S. commitments to Japanese and South Korean security, they plan to focus on an increasingly assertive China, the nuclear challenge from North Korea and the coronavirus pandemic.
In his first months in office, Biden has signaled his desire to return the Asia-Pacific to the top of the U.S. foreign policy agenda. In keeping with his broader “America is back” diplomatic theme, Biden has pledged to keep stability in the region at the core of his international initiatives.
On Friday, Biden participated in a virtual summit with the leaders of India, Japan and Australia. “A free and open Indo-Pacific is essential,” Biden said. “The United States is committed to working with you, our partners and all of our allies in the region to achieve stability.”
As part of that effort and “to reduce the risks of escalation,” the senior official said efforts had been made to connect with the North Koreans since mid-February, including through what is known as the “New York channel.” To date, the official said, “we have not received any response from Pyongyang.” The official was not authorized to publicly discuss the diplomatic outreach and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Meanwhile, U.S. and South Korean negotiators have overcome years of contentious discussions under Trump to reach a tentative deal on paying for the American troop presence in South Korea. That agreement, along with a similar one for Japan, will be front and center in Blinken and Austin’s meetings.
As he had done with allies in Europe, Trump threatened to reduce security cooperation unless host countries paid more. That led to fears of troop withdrawals at a time of particular uncertainty as China boosts efforts to dominate the region and North Korea’s nuclear weapons remain a major source of angst.
“Diplomacy is back at the center of our foreign policy, and we are working to strengthen America’s relationships with our allies as well as the relationships among them,” said Sung Kim, who is the top U.S. diplomat for Asia. He served in the Philippines and Indonesia during the Trump administration and was also previously the special envoy for North Korea.
For all of Biden’s suggestions that he will reverse Trump’s overt hostility to China, Biden has yet to countermand a single one of his predecessor’s policies. He has, in fact, reaffirmed several of them, including maintaining sanctions in response to human rights abuses in western Xinjiang and Hong Kong and restating a Trump-era decision to reject outright nearly all of China’s maritime claims in the South China Sea.
Many of China’s policies that the U.S. finds objectionable — including its crackdown in Hong Kong, stepped up rhetoric against Taiwan and actions in the South China Sea — began during the Obama administration. The previous Democratic administration took office promising a “pivot to Asia” after a period of what many saw as American neglect for the region during George W. Bush’s presidency, which was consumed by the onset of wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
In fact, although some obvious circumstances have changed since 2009, Blinken and Austin’s trip mirrors in many ways the initial overseas journey of President Barack Obama’s first secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, when she traveled to Japan, South Korea, Indonesia and then China in a bid to reassert U.S. interests in the Asia-Pacific. Obama’s engagement with China, however, did not produce the desired results, and the North Korean threat grew.
Although China is not on Blinken’s itinerary, after wrapping up the stop in Seoul, he will fly back to Washington via Anchorage, Alaska, where he and Sullivan will meet senior Chinese officials. Austin will go from Seoul to New Delhi for meetings with Indian leaders.
Still, the administration is convinced that its domestic efforts to revitalize the U.S. economy and step up the fight against COVID-19 have put it in a better position both to blunt Chinese ambitions directly and leverage its partnerships to do the same.
“After the work of the past 50 days, Secretary Blinken and I will enter the meeting with senior Chinese representatives from a position of strength,” Sulllivan said Friday.
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Biden expected to tap Antony Blinken for Secretary of State.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Joe Biden is expected to nominate Antony Blinken as secretary of state, according to multiple people familiar with the Biden team’s planning. Blinken, 58, served as deputy secretary of state and deputy national security adviser during the Obama administration and has close ties with Biden. If nominated and confirmed, he would be a leading force in the incoming administration’s bid to reframe the U.S. relationship with the rest of the world after four years in which President Donald Trump questioned longtime alliances.
(1 of 3) Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Syria. Blinken is the leading contender to become President-elect Joe Biden’s nominee for secretary of state, according to multiple people familiar with the Biden team’s planning.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Nancy Lindborg
(1 of 3) Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Syria. Blinken is the leading contender to become President-elect Joe Biden’s nominee for secretary of state, according to multiple people familiar with the Biden team’s planning.
November 23, 2020
Biden is moving forward with plans to fill out his government even as Trump refuses to concede defeat, has pursued baseless legal challenges in several key states and has worked to stymie the transition process. The stakes of a smooth transition are especially high this year because Biden will take office amid the worst pandemic in more than a century, which will likely require a full government response to contain.
In nominating Blinken, Biden would sidestep potentially thorny issues that could have affected Senate confirmation for two other candidates on his short list to be America’s top diplomat: Susan Rice and Sen. Chris Coons.
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Biden bringing forward his intended national Security Team.
WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — President-elect Joe Biden is set to introduce his national security team to the nation as he taps Obama administration alumni and other public-service veterans, signaling a shift from the Trump administration’s “America First” policies and a return to U.S. global engagement.
(1 of 7) Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Linda Thomas-Greenfield, right, testifies during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington. President-elect Joe Biden is expected to tap longtime diplomat Linda Thomas-Greenfield as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
(1 of 7) Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Linda Thomas-Greenfield, right, testifies during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington. President-elect Joe Biden is expected to tap longtime diplomat Linda Thomas-Greenfield as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
November 24, 2020
Members of that team are slated to join Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris in person in Wilmington, Delaware, on Tuesday afternoon, where they’ll deliver their first remarks as Biden’s nominees. Among them is former Secretary of State John Kerry, who will take the lead on climate change.
Outside the realm of national security and foreign policy, Biden is expected to choose Janet Yellen as the first woman to become treasury secretary. She was nominated by President Barack Obama to lead the Federal Reserve, the first woman in that position, and served from 2014 to 2018.
Biden’s emerging Cabinet marks a return to a more traditional approach to governing, relying on veteran policymakers with deep expertise and strong relationships in Washington and global capitals. And with a roster with multiple women and people of color — some of whom are breaking historic barriers in their posts — Biden is acting on his campaign promise to lead a team that reflects the diversity of America.
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Sanders, Warren under scrutiny as Biden weighs Cabinet Picks
WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, leaders of the Democratic Party’s left wing, are at risk of being excluded from the senior ranks of President-elect Joe Biden’s administration as the incoming president balances the demands of his party’s progressive base against the political realities of a narrowly divided Senate.
(1 of 1) Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden, center, speaks as Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., left, and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., listen during a Democratic presidential primary debate hosted by ABC News, Apple News, and WMUR-TV at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, N.H. Sanders and Warren, the faces of the Democratic Party’s far-left wing, are at risk of being excluded from the senior ranks of President-elect Biden’s administration as the incoming president balances the demands of his party’s progressive base against the political realities of a narrowly divided Senate.
Warren, whose political career has been defined by efforts to diminish the power of big banks, is the progressive movement’s top choice for Treasury secretary. Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, reiterated his desire to serve as Biden’s Labor secretary on Thursday, describing himself as particularly well-suited “to focus on the many crises facing working families in this country.”
Whether he is included in Biden’s cabinet or not, Sanders warned Biden not to freeze out progressives as he shapes his government. “It seems to me pretty clear that progressive views need to be expressed within a Biden administration,” Sanders told The Associated Press. “It would be, for example, enormously insulting if Biden put together a ‘team of rivals’ — and there’s some discussion that that’s what he intends to do — which might include Republicans and conservative Democrats — but which ignored the progressive community. I think that would be very, very unfortunate.”
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Analysis: Biden prioritizes experience with Cabinet Picks.
NEW YORK (AP) — Competence is making a comeback.President-elect Joe Biden has prized staying Power over Star Power when making his first wave of Cabinet Picks and choices for White House staff, with a premium placed on government experience and proficiency as he looks to rebuild a depleted and demoralized federal bureaucracy.
(1 of 6) President-elect Joe Biden removes his face mask as he arrives to introduce his nominees and appointees to key national security and foreign policy posts at The Queen theater, Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2020, in Wilmington, Del. President-elect Joe Biden’s first wave of Cabinet picks and choices for his White House staff have prized staying power over star power, with a premium placed on government experience and proficiency as he looks to rebuild a depleted and demoralized federal bureaucracy.
(2 of 6) President-elect Joe Biden listens as his Secretary of State nominee Tony Blinken speaks at The Queen theater, Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2020, in Wilmington, Del. Biden’s first wave of Cabinet picks and choices for his White House staff have prized staying power over star power, with a premium placed on government experience and proficiency as he looks to rebuild a depleted and demoralized federal bureaucracy.
(3 of 6) President-elect Joe Biden’s U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations nominee Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield speaks at The Queen theater, Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2020, in Wilmington, Del. Biden’s first wave of Cabinet picks and choices for his White House staff have prized staying power over star power, with a premium placed on government experience and proficiency as he looks to rebuild a depleted and demoralized federal bureaucracy.
(4 of 6) President-elect Joe Biden’s climate envoy nominee former Secretary of State John Kerry speaks at The Queen theater, Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2020, in Wilmington, Del.
(5 of 6) President-elect Joe Biden’s national security adviser nominee Jake Sullivan speaks at The Queen theater, Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2020, in Wilmington, Del.
(6 of 6) President-elect Joe Biden’s Director of National Intelligence nominee Avril Haines speaks at The Queen theater, Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2020, in Wilmington, Del.
November 25, 2020
With an eye in part toward making selections who may have to seek approval from a Republican-controlled Senate, Biden has prioritized choosing qualified professionals while eschewing flashy names. Even the most recognizable pick — John Kerry — lacks the showmanship that has defined the Trump era.
In sharp contrast to President Donald Trump, who openly distrusted the very government he led, Biden has showcased a faith in bureaucracy that was born out of his nearly five decades in Washington. He’s made hires with the deliberate aim of projecting a sense of dutiful and, even boring, competency.
Surrounding himself with longtime aides and veterans of the Obama administration, many of whom have already worked together for years, Biden has rolled out a team of careerists with bursting resumes and little need of a learning curve.
“Collectively, this team has secured some of the most defining national security and diplomatic achievements in recent memory — made possible through decades of experience working with our partners,” Biden said Tuesday as he unveiled his national security team.
“Experience” is indeed the coin of the realm on Biden’s burgeoning team. His pick for secretary of state, Antony Blinken, worked for Biden in the Senate for years, and held the posts of deputy secretary of state and deputy national security adviser. His choice for national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, was the deputy to that post under President Barack Obama. His nominee for treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, was chair of the Federal Reserve and chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers. His incoming White House chief of staff, Ron Klain, was chief of staff to two vice presidents — Al Gore and Biden himself — and was the Obama administration’s Ebola czar.
And Kerry, Biden’s choice to fill the newly created post of presidential climate envoy, was a longtime U.S. senator and his party’s 2004 presidential nominee before serving as secretary of state. “The team is bringing competency and experience, which are two separate things but deeply interwoven,” said retired Navy Adm. James Stavridis, former NATO supreme allied commander Europe, who has worked with much of Biden’s new team. “There are deputies stepping up into full roles, seasoned hands returning to the job. They tend to be calm and centered and they won’t all fight over the ball.”
“They know their counterparts overseas and they know whom to pick up the phone and call,” said Stavridis. “It’s a completely different approach than what we saw with the Trump team — and I hesitate to call it a team because they didn’t work all that well together.”
Four years ago, contenders for Cabinet posts were marched through the gilded lobby of Trump Tower, the president-elect’s Manhattan skyscraper, in full view of reporters and TV cameras. The candidates publicly jockeyed for posts, Trump aides took turn knifing each other in the media, and the incoming president even took one secretary of state contender, Mitt Romney, out to dinner for a public and ultimately unsuccessful audition.
Conversely, Biden’s transition hiring process has been carried out behind closed doors or, out of concern for the surging pandemic, on Zoom and over the phone. Leaks to reporters have been few. And the public only got its first glimpse of Biden’s choices when they took their spots, spaced apart and wearing masks, on a Delaware stage.
Another change was the distinct lack of tributes from the staffers about their boss, a marked difference from the lengthy, glowing venerations of the president that came to define any Trump Cabinet meeting. Also different: No one who stood with Biden was a family member or an in-law.
“The contrast between Biden’s selections and Trump’s selections are like night and day: Biden’s picks are capable, sensible and play well in the sandbox together,” said Steve Rattner, a former Obama economic adviser. “Biden prefers people he has known for decades. Trump picked Rex Tillerson because he thought he looked like a secretary of state.”
There are risks. Many progressive Democrats aren’t looking for simply a return to the Obama years, which ended with many on the left frustrated at the slow pace of change. Republicans are also unimpressed with Biden’s hires.
“Biden’s cabinet picks went to Ivy League schools, have strong resumes, attend all the right conferences & will be polite & orderly caretakers of America’s decline,” tweeted Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who may seek the White House again in 2024.
Trump’s own hiring process was besieged with chaos of his own making. He jettisoned the man in charge of his transition — former Gov. Chris Christie, R-N.J. — and more than 30 binders that Christie had prepared in favor of a staffing plan based on his gut, family recommendations and, yes, by his own admission, choices who looked straight out of central casting.
The tumult didn’t end once he took office. While a few of his picks were establishment choices, like Marine Gen. Jim Mattis to run the Pentagon, most were plucked from the corporate world — like Tillerson at the State Department and Steven Mnuchin at the Treasury Department. His senior adviser, Steve Bannon, said he wanted to oversee “the destruction of the administrative state.”
Trump had more senior staff and Cabinet turnover than any modern predecessor — his first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, didn’t last a month — and he declared an informal war on the federal bureaucracy once the investigation began into whether his campaign had any ties to Russia.
Deeply suspicious of what he deemed the “deep state,” Trump allowed scores of vacancies to remain unfilled across federal agencies, fired officials he deemed insufficiently loyal, encouraged in-fighting on his staff and, with relentless public attacks, attempted to undermine Americans’ faith in the institutions of their own government.
EDITOR’S NOTE
Jonathan Lemire has covered the White House and national politics for The Associated Press since 2013.
Follow Lemire on Twitter at http://twitter.com/@JonLemire.
Subjects
Government and politics, Diplomacy, International relations, Government transitions People
Barack Obama, Michael Flynn, John Kerry, Al Gore Locations
District of Columbia, United States, North America Organisations
United States Senate, United States Congress, United States government
The US tough Surveillance & All Issues Monitoring,which resulted in Trump’s non realizable US Electoral Ambition & coupled with Putin ‘s inability to Act or Perform as before,is fast beclouding or has beclouded Trump expected electoral Result or non feasible Trump electoral Win.
These have made Trump’s & Putin’s Agents/Supporters,in conjunction with her Imperial Majesty Networks/Agencies to maneuver overtly or covertly the Media,to lobby, to propagate gullible Public with some fabricated misinformation or to mislead through unwarranted Racial Tension with its infused Crisis.
All US Stakeholders and all concerned,should be aware or Be warned of More Coming Trump/Putin booboo Racial Traps/Crisis with some futuristic Economic Protests,as to engage US or Preoccupy US and divert US Political intention for expectant US Electoral Change.
Ironically,People should exercise Calm,Patience with Deserved Intelligence when dealing or handling Racial issues or Resolving Economic Issues
…………………………………………………………………….
Russia Vladimir Putin, as a groomed voodoo political/economic crisis Expert and as a KGB trained Con Artist Expert/KGB insecurity crisis Expert.Huge Migrant Crisis,Trump induced Trade Tariff Economic Conflict/Crisis and Far Right/White Extremist Political Instability confronting West & US with its Allies nowadays,have testified Russia Vladimir Putin, as a groomed voodoo political/economic Crisis Expert and as a KGB trained Con Artist Expert/KGB insecurity Crisis Expert.
Analysts were of opinion that Putin Russia KGB Elements/NGOs secretly organized, sponsored & tel-guided Stranded Mediterranean sea Migrants and Stranded US-Mexico border Migrants, as technical analysis or careful studies of some years back Migrants,could show that past migrants were resourceful, matured & well knowledgeable than present youthful migrants,as many present migrant do not have the required Resources or Maturity & traveling know-how,as to leave their various Countries,in order to be able to reach either Mediterranean sea or US-Mexico Border.
Putin migrant problematic Designs were created to inflate the US or West with large Refugee Complex Problems and to create a migrant unsolvable situation where the US or West is portrayed in bad Media light as inhuman or not caring.
Western Securities/Agents should be on the field, as to counter and checkmate this Putin Russia Migrant Crisis program as quickly as possible.
Putin led Russia Kremlin/KGB Hardliners accused US with its Western Allies for the collapse of former Soviet Union Republics,whereby Putin with his Cohorts strategically nurtured & sponsored European Far Right Chauvinists/White Extremists and US White Extremist Conservatives,as to create Racial Divide Crisis, inflate Racial Inequalities, Economic Disharmony & to segregate US various Races/Classes from US flourishing Economy.
Trump led Extremist Republicans after saying that Obama 8 years were disastrous,but upon Trump Office assumption,they asserted that Jobs were created and the US Economy has turned Around & is now performing,while the smallest Economy takes 2years,to be able to turn it Around.
…………………………
Astonishingly,the US President Trump recently goofed on Harris Citizenship & Shocked the World by his Non Strategic Ignorance,Displayed Parochialism and lack of Technical Think Tank Reserve on Universal Basis,US Ethnic/Racial Divide Sentiment and wiping up Parochial Racial Sentimentalism.
US Stakeholders and all concerned,should be aware or be warned of more coming Trump/Putin booboo Racial Traps/Crisis with some futuristic Economic Protests,as to engage US or Preoccupy US and divert US Political intention for expectant US Electoral Change.Ironically,US People should exercise Calm,Patience with Deserved Intelligence when dealing or handling Racial issues or Resolving Economic Issues.
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Mazi Patrick O.,
email: akwaba2000@gmail.com
Thinker, Writer, Political Strategist, Historian & Psychoanalyst….
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