Joe Biden’s Pick For Secretary Of State Makes First Statement About India

Antony Blinken, a close aide of US President-elect Joe Biden is set to become the secretary of state.

Joe Biden’s pick for secretary, Antony Blinken feels that India will play a key role in combating China.

“We have a common challenge which is to deal with an increasingly assertive China across the board, including its aggression toward India at the Line of Actual Control,” Blinken said.

Antony Blinken is expected to be the secretary of state once Joe Biden takes office. His statement comes at a time when India is already combating with China. Both countries are engaged in simmering border tension along Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Eastern Ladakh since May. 

In an interview with Richard Verma, the US ambassador to India, Blinken has assured that Joe Biden will work closely with India in matters related to China. He also said that the US President will also renew democratic relations between the two counties as he takes charge. Blinken called India a close ally of the US and said that Biden administration would work closely with New Delhi.

“During the Obama-Biden administration, we worked very hard to establish India as a key contributing member of the Indo-Pacific strategy. And that includes India’s role in working with like minded partners to strengthen and uphold a rules-based order in the Indo Pacific, in which no country, including China, can threaten its neighbours with impunity,” Blinken said.

“That role needs to extend even beyond the region as vast as it is to the world at large. In a Biden administration, we would be an advocate for India to play a leading role in international institutions and that includes helping India get a seat on a reformed United Nations Security Council. We would work together to strengthen India’s defence, and also add its capabilities as a counterterrorism partner,” he added.

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