US President-elect Joe Biden has appointed Ron Klain, a decades-long associate, as his chief of staff, indicating that he will rely on a close circle of known and trusted aides, all moderates.
Klain was Biden’s first major staffing announcement as the president-elect went ahead with training his team to take office on January 20, unfazed by President Donald Trump’s refusal to acknowledge defeat and extend transition protocols. enshrined by the incoming administration.
“Ron has been invaluable to me over the many years we’ve worked together, including as we rescued the American economy from one of the worst recessions in our history in 2009 and then weathered an overwhelming public health emergency in 2014,” Biden said in a declaration.
“His wide and varied experience and ability to work with people from across the political spectrum is precisely what I need in a White House chief of staff as we face this time of crisis and bring our country together again.”
Klain has been with Biden since his days in the United States Senate. The president-elect was serving his seventh six-year term when he was elected deputy to President Barack Obama.
A Harvard Law School alumnus, Klain served as Biden’s chief of staff as Vice President and led the Obama administration’s response to the 2014-15 Ebola epidemic in the US, as the “Czar of the Ebola “.
Klain’s selection was seen as a sign that the moderates in the Democratic Party, who have been the natural electorate of the president-elect, will have the upper hand in the administration, even if the progressives could win important concessions in terms of politics and personnel. as feared. by some in India.
New Delhi should breathe a little easier, observers said after Klain’s appointment. But they cautioned that a better understanding of the incoming administration’s impact on India will have to await other key appointments such as secretary of state, secretary of defense and national security adviser.
Susan Rice, a former national security adviser and United States ambassador to the UN, is a leading candidate for secretary of state, as is William Burns, a former deputy secretary of state, and Anthony Blinken, also a former deputy secretary of state security and the main one of Biden’s campaign. substitute for foreign policy.
Michele Flournoy, a former undersecretary of defense, is the top candidate for the top defense job on all of Biden’s cabinet speculative lists.
And Blinken tops all the NSA charts.
Indian officials have had close and long-standing working relationships with all four, according to many past and present diplomats who have dealt with them, and look forward to interacting with them, relying on their understanding and support for ties with India, especially in a time uptight like this.
Speaking to the American Indian community on the occasion of India’s Independence Day on August 15, Blinken, who was the main spokesperson for Biden’s campaign on national security and foreign policy issues, said that the cooperation between the two countries should “extend even further the region to the world so great.”
He went on to assert that the Biden administration will support a greater role for India in international institutions, including a permanent seat in a reformed UN Security Council.
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