Blinken wants to give successor Rubio the 'strongest hand' possible

By Humeyra Pamuk

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday said he was focusing on making sure Marco Rubio can hit the ground running on top foreign policy issues including Ukraine when he succeeds him next month.

In a wide-ranging interview with Reuters that covered Ukraine, South Korea and the Middle East as well as his legacy as the nation's secretary of state, Blinken said President Joe Biden's administration was keeping President-elect Donald Trump's team informed on the main foreign policy issues.

"I want to make sure that my successor, Senator Rubio, is able to hit the ground running," Blinken said on the sidelines of a NATO foreign ministers meeting in Brussels.

"My intent and my focus, as I said, is to make sure that I hand off the strongest possible hand for them to play. And I think that's in their (interest), in the interest of the country and in the interest of the administration," Blinken said.

Rubio, 53, is known as a China hawk, an outspoken critic of Cuba's Communist government and a strong backer of Israel.

He has in the past advocated for a more assertive U.S. foreign policy with respect to America's geopolitical foes, although recently his views have aligned more closely with those of Trump's "America First" approach to foreign policy.

The Biden administration has accelerated military aid to Ukraine to strengthen Kyiv's position on the battlefield with Russia and bolster it before Trump takes office on Jan. 20, when the future of assistance to Ukraine will be less certain.

Blinken said the steps Washington was taking now to reinforce Kyiv before possible negotiations was to the benefit of the Trump administration although he declined to say whether or not Trump was aligned on Ukraine with the position of the Biden administration.

"It will have a strong hand to play, as it decides, along with others, where this goes next year," Blinken said.

Trump pledged during his election campaign to end the conflict in Ukraine within 24 hours of his inauguration, if not before then, but has not said how. He had appointed retired Army Lieutenant-General Keith Kellogg as his Russia-Ukraine envoy.

GAZA CEASEFIRE

Blinken has been at the forefront of the Biden administration's push to end the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

Despite multiple trips to Israel to meet Israeli leaders, he has not bridged gaps between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas militants. Last week when Biden announced a ceasefire in the parallel conflict in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah, he said Washington would make a final push to achieve ceasefire in Gaza as well.

"We're focused on doing everything we can, pursuing every avenue that we can to finally conclude an agreement," Blinken said, but declined to give further details on the status of any negotiations.

He pledged to continue work on a day-after plan for Gaza but acknowledged he may not be in office long enough to see its implementation.

Israel's military conduct has come under criticism over the high Palestinian civilian death toll in Gaza and some in Biden's Democratic party have criticised him for continuing to flood Israel with U.S. weapons.

Some concerns have also been raised that the amount of American weapons used by the Israeli military in Gaza meant they might have been involved in potential human rights violations.

As Biden's secretary of state, Blinken has been on the firing line of the criticism from rights advocates and pro-Palestinian groups, some of which have camped outside his home, accusing him of being "the butcher of Gaza".

Asked how Israel's conduct might reflect on his legacy as the top U.S. diplomat, Blinken said his legacy was for people to judge and that he was focusing on getting a ceasefire in his final days in office.

"There will be a time, maybe a lot of time, after the end of this administration for people to judge what we did, whether we did right, whether we did wrong....I don't have time to do that right now," Blinken said.