It's not an easy walk to the exit for Anthony Blinken. With just eight days left as secretary of state, he has not yet decided what will be his last trip back and forth around the globe, with meetings in Seoul, Tokyo, Paris and, finally , Rome.
Blinken has traveled over a million miles on the job. “Every minute, every hour, every day of the time we have left, we aim to get results,” he said.
“Sunday Morning” went with him in early December – three times back – from Washington to Brussels for the last meeting of NATO foreign ministers. The main topic of discussion was Russian aggression in Ukraine.
“We have a new NATO strategic concept,” Blinken said. “He recognizes that Russia is the most direct threat to the alliance.”
But there was also a lot of excitement going on. Blinken stood right in the middle of the so-called “family portrait”, and also a photo-bomb of a portrait of all the women of foreign ministers.
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Mark Rutte of the Netherlands, NATO's secretary-general, told Blinken, “You have been a strong friend, and people like you a lot.”
This ceremonial display & statement could be seen as subtle messages to the incoming Trump administration about value nurture alliance – the “stronger together” argument. Blinken said, “The direction I got from President Biden on Day One was to get in there, renew, renew, and even reimagine our alliances and partnerships .”
Here's one more opportunity for Blinken to uphold the Biden administration's foreign policy report card … He explained, “If the United States is not involved, if we are not leading, maybe someone else is (and maybe not in a way that reflects our interests and values), or maybe just as bad, no one is. What we've done over the last four years is we've re-engaged.”
Regarding Ukraine, he told the media in Brussels, “Everyone said, the US has given $102 billion in aid to Ukraine, our friends and partners $158 billion . This is probably the best example of burden sharing I've seen in the 32 years I've been doing this.”
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President Trump wants to end Russia's war with Ukraine, critics fear No to the benefit of Ukraine. Ever the diplomat, Blinken will not say that he is trying to convince Trump of the possible outcome. “For any of us to speculate at this point, I don't think it makes a lot of sense,” Blinken said. “What makes sense is to make sure that we give the next administration, that we give the incoming Trump administration the strongest hand around the world, whether it's on Ukraine or whatever else it is.
Sixty-two years ago, Antony Blinken was born to become secretary of state. His father, financier and philanthropist Donald Blinken, was ambassador to Hungary. His stepfather, international lawyer and humanitarian Samuel Pisar, was a Holocaust survivor from Poland. “He was on a death march out of the camps, and he and some friends managed to escape the death march itself, hidden in the woods of Bavaria,” said Blinken. “They saw a tank with a white star on it five points. And the cloth opened up, and a very large African American GI was looking down at him, and he got down on his knees and said the only words he knew in English that he had. his mother had taught him before the war: 'God bless America.' And the GI lifted him into the tank, to freedom, into the United States.
Blinken grew up in Paris. He attended Harvard, Columbia Law School, and in 1993, during President Clinton's first term, he began his diplomatic career at the State Department. During one administration after another, Blinken was always in the “happening room.” ” That's him (right, background) in the famous photo when President Obama took out Osama bin Laden.
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Blinken was the national security adviser to then-Vice President Joe Biden. The two are extremely close. “One of the things that has been a great privilege is to have the kind of relationship where he would seek my advice,” Blinken said, “and I always felt that because I had the ability to to speak his mind. “
It was reported in Bob Woodward's recent book, “War,” that Blinken met with the president last July after President Biden's controversial performance last July and asked he considered whether he “wanted to do this another four years?”… he adds. , “I don't want to see your legacy in jeopardy.”
Blinken's and Biden's legacies are inextricably linked, for better or worse. Blinken has defended the US withdrawal from Afghanistan on the watch, reminding the world that the first Trump administration made a deal with the Taliban, forcing them to withdraw .
On their rocky relationship with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the destruction of Gaza, in response to the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, and Netanyahu's apparent lack of respect for the role the United States is trying to play ( and has helped financially) in support of Israel, that calls to protect and feed people have been heeded, Blinken said: “It's the fastest, most efficient way to get people what they need on them through what we have been. trying to achieve for several months now, and that's a truce, with the enemies coming home, a lot of support coming in.”
Even this late in the game, Blinken hopes a deal can be reached before Inauguration Day. But if not? He said, “When that agreement is reached, it will be based on what President Biden has put forward.”
And who gets the credit? “You know, in the end, it doesn't matter,” Blinken said. “The most important thing is whether the United States can make a real change, a real change in people's lives.”
It still feels idealistic. There is something a little square about Antony Blinken. After all, he's the guy who inspired musical diplomacy by performing the Muddy Waters blues standard, “Hoochie Coochie Man,” in a suit and tie:
What will he do now? It is unclear on that. When he left NATO headquarters for the last time as secretary of state, I asked, “You can't have strong feelings knowing you're leaving this building?
“Of course,” Blinken said. “Look, there's always a moment. Someone says something to you, there is a generous acknowledgment, and for about 30 seconds you feel that. You take it to heart. But then, it's back to work. That's my focus Now, talk to me on January 21.”
WATCH: Secretary of State Blinken on America's role in Syria (Web Extra)
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Story produced by Ed Forgotson. Editor: Remington Korper.
