Rubio wins unanimous nod to be top US diplomat

by Shaun TANDON

The US Senate unanimously approved Marco Rubio as secretary of state on Monday, putting the fellow senator on the front line of President Donald Trump's often confrontational diplomacy.

Rubio, who is the first Hispanic and first fluent Spanish speaker to assume the position of top US diplomat, is Trump's first cabinet nominee to be confirmed by the Republican-led Senate, only hours after the inauguration.

Unusually in a highly partisan era, Rubio was confirmed 99-0, with several senators from the rival Democratic Party describing Rubio as a friend. One Senate seat was made vacant by the inauguration of Vice President J.D. Vance.

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"Given the uncertainty around the globe right now, it is in America's interest not to skip a beat and to fill this role immediately," said Senator Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

"While we may not always agree, I believe he has the skills, knowledge and qualifications to be secretary of state," she said on the Senate floor.

Shaheen and the Republican chairman of the committee, Jim Risch, agreed to fast-track Rubio's nomination, which was cleared by the panel barely an hour before heading to the floor.

"It's no secret that hostile powers from China to Russia, from North Korea to Iran, have formed an authoritarian axis bent on weakening the United States," Risch said.

"We need a principled, action-oriented chief diplomat like Marco Rubio to take them on."

- Challenge to represent Trump -

Rubio will immediately have the task of executing the potentially erratic foreign policy of Trump, who in an inauguration speech Monday renewed threats to seize the Panama Canal but also pledged to be a "peacemaker."

Trump challenged the two secretaries of state in his first term with a foreign policy that swung rapidly, with Trump in one case shifting from threatening the destruction of North Korea to declaring that he "fell in love" with strongman leader Kim Jong Un.

Rubio, the working-class son of Cuban immigrants who bitterly opposed Fidel Castro's communist revolution, is known for his hawkish stance toward Latin American authoritarian states and China.

In his confirmation hearing last week, Rubio accused China of cheating its way to superpower status and called the Asian giant "the most potent and dangerous near-peer adversary this nation has ever faced."

Rubio will head to work Tuesday and, according to diplomats, is expected to meet with foreign ministers from the Quad, which groups the United States with Australia, India and Japan.

Conceived by late Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe and upgraded by former president Joe Biden, the Quad has been seen by China as a way for the four democracies to encircle and contain it, despite denials from the countries.

Rubio is also expected to join Trump in being a stalwart defender of Israel, which a day earlier entered a long-awaited ceasefire with Hamas, something that had been sought exhaustively by Rubio's Democratic predecessor Antony Blinken.

Despite his collegial relations in the Senate, Rubio was once a bitter opponent of Trump, who famously belittled him as "Little Marco" when the senator unsuccessfully sought the Republican presidential nomination in 2016.

Rubio has since rallied behind Trump. In his confirmation hearing, he repeatedly stressed that the president would make the policy.

Several of Trump's nominees have yet to have confirmation hearings due to their controversial records, including Tulsi Gabbard for intelligence chief, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for health and human services secretary and Kash Patel for the FBI.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said that Rubio's confirmation showed the party would not "reflexively oppose nominees" but would also not "rubber stamp" them.