The US Senate on Thursday unanimously approved – extremely rare – the appointment of the veteran diplomat William Burns in the position of Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) by President Joe Biden.
The 64-year-old former ambassador to Russia and former deputy foreign minister, who has served in both Republican and Democratic governments, is the first career diplomat to head the US spy agency.
During the hearing for his candidacy in the Senate Intelligence Committee, which took place in an unusually friendly atmosphere, Mr. Burns set four priorities: “the people, co-operation relations, China and technology “.
He called China a “terrible” and “authoritarian” state – an “adversary” of the United States, a “predator” which, according to him, increases its potential to “steal” intellectual property, to oppress its citizens, to expand its scope of action. and gain influence in the US. He stressed, according to AMPE, that Beijing’s behavior is “the biggest challenge” for the current US government.
Competition with China has become a top priority for the Biden administration, but also for many members of the US Congress, who are demanding a tough stance against Beijing.
One of the architects of the agreement on Iran’s nuclear program, which was signed in 2015, believes that Washington must “do everything possible to prevent” the Islamic Republic from “developing a nuclear arsenal.”
Burns’ appointment was approved unanimously and at committee level.
Plenary unanimity was reached after Republican Sen. Ted Cruz lifted his objection. The senator was pressuring the Biden government to take a tougher line on the German-Russian Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.
The Senate approved even more marginally the appointment of Javier Besera, the first Latin American to take over as Secretary of Health, amid a new coronavirus pandemic that has claimed the lives of more than 530,000 people in the United States.
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