U.S. President-elect Joe Biden’s foreign policy team vows to work with partners around the world to take on pressing challenges ranging from receding democracy to the growing rivalry with China, Russia and other authoritarian states.
Tuesday, Biden’s nominee for secretary of state, Anthony Blinken, testifies at the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.
Blinken will tell lawmakers the United States “can outcompete China.”
“We can revitalize our core alliances – force multipliers of our influence around the world. Together, we are far better positioned to counter threats posed by Russia, Iran, and North Korea, and to stand up for democracy and human rights,” according to prepared testimony.
Blinken was deputy secretary of state during the Obama administration and has close ties with Biden. He was staff director for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee when Biden was chair of the panel, and later was then-Vice President Biden’s national security adviser.
The incoming Biden administration may take possible confidence-building steps to reverse irritants in the U.S.-China relations, including easing visa restrictions on journalists and restoring closed consulates, according to Kurt Campbell, tapped as Biden’s senior coordinator for Indo-Pacific policy at the White House National Security Council, during a recent webinar at the Asia Society.