ABOUT SECRETARY BLINKEN
Antony J. Blinken is the 71st U.S. Secretary of State. He was nominated by President Joseph Biden on November 23, 2020; confirmed by the U.S. Senate on January 26, 2021; and sworn in by Vice President Kamala Harris the following day.
Over three decades and three presidential administrations, Mr Blinken has helped shape U.S foreign policy to ensure it protects U.S. interests and delivers results for the American people.
He served as deputy secretary of state for President Barack Obama from 2015 to 2017, and before that, as President Obama’s principal deputy national security advisor. In that role,
Mr. Blinken chaired the interagency deputies committee, the main forum for hammering out the administration’s foreign policy.
During the first term of the Obama Administration, Mr. Blinken was national security advisor to then-Vice President Joe Biden. This was the continuation of a long professional relationship that stretched back to 2002, when Mr Blinken began his six-year stint as Democratic staff director for the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Then-Senator Biden was the chair of that committee from 2001 to 2003 and 2007 to 2009.
During the Clinton Administration, Mr Blinken served as a member of the National Security Council staff, including two years as the senior