Washington: United States President-elect Joe Biden’s nominees to lead the State and Defense Departments told Congress on Tuesday they would seek to reassert the nation’s leadership in world affairs and reverse the Trump administration’s policies.
Antony Blinken, who has been nominated to be the next US secretary of state, promised to restore US leadership in international affairs after four years of President Donald Trump’s term in office.
“We will revitalise American diplomacy to deal with and take on the most pressing challenges of our time,” Blinken told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
“American leadership still matters,” Blinken said, describing the world as one defined by “rising nationalism, receding democracy, growing rivalry from China and Russia, and other authoritarian states”.
For his part, Lloyd Austin, Biden’s nominee to be secretary of defence, told the Senate Armed Services Committee renewing US military alliances against China would be one of his top priorities.
“I look forward very much to going out to refurbish those alliances,” Austin said under questioning from Democratic Senator Jack Reed, who will chair the committee this year.
