The U.S. Senate has voted to confirm Marco Rubio as Donald Trump’s secretary of state, making him the new president’s first high-level cabinet official to be approved.
Just hours after Trump was sworn in as president, senators voted 99 to 0 to confirm their longtime colleague, who represented Florida in the upper house of Congress from 2011 right up until his appointment to federal office.
It marks a stark contrast from the two men’s tussle for the Republican nomination back in 2016, when Rubio called Trump a “con artist” and Trump mocked Rubio as “Little Marco”.
His appointment also makes him the first Latino secretary of state, who effectively serves as the country’s top diplomat.
In a five-hour hearing last Wednesday, both Democrats and Republicans appeared well disposed towards the veteran legislator.
In his answers, Rubio promised to take a hard line against China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran, as well as firmly supporting for Israel’s conduct in Gaza.
“They’re a technological adversary and competitor, an industrial competitor, an economic competitor, geopolitical competitor, a scientific competitor now,” he said of China.
“In every realm it’s an extraordinary challenge, and one that I believe will define the 21st century…
“If we don’t change course, we are going to live in the world where much of what matters to us on a daily basis, from our security to our health, will be dependent on whether the Chinese allow us to have it or not.”
He also praised Nato and said the U.S. must stand behind the alliance, despite Trump’s long history of criticizing the alliance — and his reported interest in pulling out of it entirely during his first term.
”The Nato alliance is a very important alliance. I believe that. Without the Nato alliance, there is no end of the Cold War. It’s possible that much of what today we know as Europe would have fallen victim to aggression.
“But what’s important to the United States is not just to have defence allies, it’s to have allies who are capable of defending their region…
“I think there’s been broad acknowledgement, across Europe and across multiple [U.S.] administrations, that our Nato partners — these are rich, advanced economies — need to contribute more to their own defence, and ultimately to the Nato partnership.”
