WASHINGTON — Outgoing Secretary of State Antony Blinken instructed The Associated Press that he hopes the brand new Trump administration will carry ahead key components of President Joe Biden’s international coverage, together with on the Middle East and Ukraine.
But in a wide-ranging interview Friday, on his final working day as America’s high diplomat, he expressed concern that Trump’s group would possibly abandon all or a few of these insurance policies.
Blinken stated there may be purpose to fret that the brand new administration might not proceed efforts put in place by Biden’s nationwide safety group to finish the struggle in Gaza, assist Ukraine free itself from Russian interference and preserve strengthened alliances with key companions.
“When we arrived, we inherited partnerships and alliances that had been critically frayed,” he stated. “So if the previous is prologue, sure, that might be a priority.”
“I do not know – I can not know – how they take care of issues,” Blinken added. “I feel there may be, might and I feel there must be, actual continuity in a few locations.”
Trump’s divergent views on international coverage
President-elect Donald Trump has been skeptical of U.S. alliances, together with NATO and protection partnerships within the Asia-Pacific, which Biden’s group has labored to shore up over the previous 4 years. Trump has additionally been essential of U.S. army assist to Ukraine and praised Russian President Vladimir Putin.
But Trump’s subsequent Middle East envoy was deeply concerned in serving to the Biden administration dealer a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. Both incoming and outgoing presidents have claimed credit score for this week’s breakthrough.
“The best-laid plans — there’s clearly no assure that our successors will comply with them and depend on them,” Blinken stated. “But at the least there may be this selection. At least they’ll determine if this can be a good foundation to proceed and make modifications.”
Efforts to succeed in Trump’s transition group for remark weren’t instantly profitable.
Blinken and the Biden administration usually have been closely criticized for his or her dealing with of the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 and, extra lately, for his or her assist of Israel in its struggle in opposition to Hamas. Critics accuse them of not imposing vital restrictions on arms shipments to Israel or pushing its ally laborious sufficient to ease the humanitarian disaster in Gaza.
Protests accusing Blinken of complicity in Israeli violence in opposition to Palestinian civilians interrupted his newest look within the State Department press room on Thursday, and protesters often gathered outdoors his residence.
Blinken complained that the Biden administration has been distracted from its central international coverage priorities by international developments, together with the withdrawal from Afghanistan, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the Gaza disaster, which have taken up time and vitality to pursue key targets, significantly within the Indo-Pacific.
These are “not what we wished or anticipated to need to give attention to,” he stated.
Blinken’s legacy has been praised and criticized
However, Blinken’s time in workplace will doubtless be remembered for these three crises, for which he obtained each reward and heavy criticism.
The Biden administration has determined to hold ahead Trump’s first-term choice to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan. Just months after taking workplace, Blinken was tasked with overseeing the withdrawal, marred by a devastating assault outdoors Kabul’s airport that killed 13 U.S. servicemen and 170 Afghans as individuals tried to flee the Taliban.
Trump and different Republicans have often attacked the Biden administration for its dealing with of the withdrawal, which was initiated a yr earlier by Trump.
Subsequently, Blinken and different U.S. officers warned for months a couple of attainable Russian invasion of Ukraine and tried unsuccessfully to forestall it. As 2022 started, Blinken devoted a lot of his time and vitality to the state of affairs in Ukraine, touring to world capitals to assist Ukraine’s trigger.
After a determined try in late January 2022 to warn Moscow in opposition to continuing with struggle, the Biden administration managed to mobilize NATO allies and like-minded companions to assist Kiev.
Finally, the administration, in response to the Hamas assaults in Israel on October 7, 2023, which began the struggle in Gaza, has been criticized for each being too supportive of Israel and never being supportive sufficient.
Blinken is delicate to such criticism and stated Friday that he and his group tried to work in America’s finest pursuits in all three circumstances.
“We, and the State Department specifically, want to be remembered for laying a brand new and stronger basis for the United States on the earth for the longer term – a basis that enables us to deal with this unbelievable multiplicity, complexity, interconnectedness of challenges from a place of energy,” he stated. “And that basis is that this renewal of our alliances and partnerships.”
“I hope the advantages are such and so clear that future administrations, a method or one other, will preserve them,” he stated.
Blinken says goodbye to the State Department
The interview, performed in Blinken’s workplace on the seventh flooring of the State Department, adopted his farewell speech to company employees. He urged profession employees to hold out their mission amid uncertainty about how the incoming administration will deal with relationships and rivalries overseas or deal with profession American diplomats.
Blinken paid tribute to their work over the previous 4 years and urged them to stay resilient.
“Without you within the image, this world, our nation would look very completely different,” Blinken stated earlier than a cheering crowd of a number of hundred staffers.
Trump has been publicly skeptical of the State Department and its conventional position in shaping the administration’s international coverage.
Trump as soon as referred to the company because the “Deep State Department,” and he and his associates have made no secret of their need to purge profession officers who don’t present adequate loyalty to the president. His choose to be Blinken’s successor, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, has stated he respects the Foreign Service however has not but detailed any plans for the way the division shall be run.
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