UNITED NATIONS (AP) – Linda Thomas-Greenfield will take up her post as US Ambassador to the United Nations on Thursday and a senior Russian diplomat said the red carpet will be rolled out and Moscow is ready to partner with the Biden government – but “it takes two for tango.”
After being sworn in by Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday, Thomas-Greenfield left for New York, where she will present her credentials to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Thursday afternoon.
She will jump right into her new job and tackle global peace and security issues with Russia, China and a dozen other countries as the United States takes over the rotating presidency of the powerful UN Security Council on Monday. And she may even decide to attend a council meeting on Friday.
“We look forward to interacting with her,” Russia’s deputy UN ambassador Dmitry Polyansky told a group of reporters on Wednesday. “You can count on our most favorable attitude and positive emotions towards her as a member of our Security Council family.”
Noting Thomas-Greenfield’s decades as a diplomat in the US, he said, “It’s always easier to interact with professionals.”
But he said America’s position that Russia is “an enemy” and a “threat” has not changed under Biden, so “it is very difficult to imagine how interacting with us could change with such assumptions of the positions. of the new government. “
Nonetheless, Polyansky said, “There are many things Russia and the United States can do together” and “we will judge the new government by what it is doing.”
“We are for cooperation,” he said. But “it takes two for tango, and we are really ready to dance, but we need a good and reliable partner who knows all the moves and respects us” as a country with certain positions, “doesn’t see us as a threat ‘and sees’ our obvious national interests in many issues’.
Thomas-Greenfield, a retired 35-year veteran of the United States Foreign Service who rose to become Assistant Secretary of State for Africa, resigned during the Trump administration. She will be the third African American and the second African American woman to hold the UN post.
Her confirmation on Tuesday was welcomed by Democrats and United Nations advocates, who had deplored former President Donald Trump’s one-sided approach to “America First” of “America First” in international affairs and welcomed President Joe Biden’s return to multilateralism.
During the Senate hearing on her nomination, Thomas-Greenfield called China “a strategic opponent” who threatens the world, citing a speech she delivered in 2019 praising China’s initiatives in Africa but not mentioning the violations of human rights.
The Senate voted 78-20 to confirm her with Republican opponents who said she was too soft on China and would not stand up for US principles at the UN
Thomas-Greenfield said at the hearing that Washington will not only work with allies “but also to see where we can agree with the Russians and the Chinese to put more pressure on the Iranians to push them back to strict compliance” of the agreement to rein in their nuclear program. Trump pulled the US out of the deal in 2018 and Biden has indicated the US will rejoin, but how that could happen remains a big question.
Polyansky said Russia welcomes the “” positive developments “in the nuclear deal with Iran and the US agreement to renew the START nuclear deal, adding that Moscow is ready for serious and meaningful discussions” primarily in the area of strategic stability “.
Thomas-Greenfield stressed at the hearing that the US will once again work together internationally and promote American values - “support for democracy, respect for universal human rights and the promotion of peace and security”.
Louis Charbonneau, director of the United Nations Human Rights Watch, told The Associated Press that Thomas-Greenfield should promote human rights as “a top priority.”
“It must let go of the Trump administration’s selective approach to human rights – enthusiastically condemning the violations of its enemies and ignoring the violations of the rights of allies such as Israel and Saudi Arabia,” he said.
“But there is room for continuity in China and Syria,” said Charbonneau. She should make expanding the coalition of nations willing to speak out against human rights violations in Beijing one of her main goals at the UN, over trying to get African, Asian and Latin American states to join. bring each other. And she must continue to push for expanded humanitarian access to all parts of Syria. ”