US Senate Confirms Biden UN Nominee Thomas-Greenfield

WASHINGTON—The U.S. Senate on Tuesday confirmed President Joe Biden’s nominee, veteran diplomat Linda Thomas-Greenfield, to function U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, including a key member to his nationwide safety group almost a month after her affirmation listening to.

The 100-member Senate backed Thomas-Greenfield by 78 to twenty to be Washington’s consultant on the world physique and a member of Biden’s Cupboard, comfortably exceeding the easy majority wanted.

All the no votes got here from Republicans.

Thomas-Greenfield, 68, is a 35-year veteran of the Overseas Service who has served on 4 continents, most notably in Africa.

Republicans who opposed her nomination targeted on a 2019 speech she gave that some mentioned was favorable to Beijing. Thomas-Greenfield and her supporters pushed again, citing her a long time as a diplomat searching for to extend U.S. affect and counteract China’s.

At her affirmation listening to in late January, she confused the significance of U.S. re-engagement with the 193-member United Nations as a way to problem efforts by China to “drive an authoritarian agenda.”

China has been working to realize higher world affect in a problem to conventional U.S. management, typically by offering loans to creating nations in Africa and elsewhere that tie them nearer to the Beijing authorities.

“Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield has an extended historical past of expressed opposition to China’s use of debt entice techniques and its more and more malign presence in world governance our bodies,” Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), chairman of the Senate Overseas Relations Committee, mentioned as he urged help.

Stress between the 2 superpowers hit a boiling level on the United Nations final yr over the coronavirus pandemic, as then-President Donald Trump, a Republican, pulled the US again from worldwide organizations as a part of his “America First” overseas coverage agenda.

Biden, a Democrat, has confused his help for multilateralism in overseas coverage, not simply by choosing a veteran diplomat for the U.N. put up, however restoring it to a Cupboard position.

By Patricia Zengerle