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Senate confirms Kurt Campbell as US No. 2 diplomat
The Senate voted 92 to 5 to confirm Campbell, currently coordinator for Indo-Pacific Affairs on the National Security Council. He previously founded and led the Asia Group, a strategy advisory and capital management group.
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Then US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell speaks at a press conference at the US embassy in Kuala Lumpur on December 13, 2012. (Agence France Presse/Saeed Khan)
T
he US Senate voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to approve veteran Asia hand Kurt Campbell, a top national security aide to President Joe Biden, as deputy secretary of state, the No. 2 position at the State Department.
The Senate voted 92 to 5 to confirm Campbell, currently coordinator for Indo-Pacific Affairs on the National Security Council. He previously founded and led the Asia Group, a strategy advisory and capital management group.
Campbell's selection for the position reflected the importance of the US-China relationship. China poses a daunting diplomatic challenge for the United States, which wants to counter its growing military without provoking a conflict and to curb what Washington views as the country's unfair business practices while avoiding an all-out trade war.
Campbell, 66, is viewed as an intellectual author of then-President Barack Obama's "pivot to Asia" strategy, a vaunted but so far still limited rebalancing of resources to the region.
He outlined his approach to Asia in a 2016 book "The Pivot," which advocated strengthening existing alliances and building closer relations with states like India andIndonesia in the face of a rising China.
