During an interview with CNBC aired on Tuesday’s broadcast of CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken responded to a question on whether declining American influence helped cause or impact Chinese behavior towards Taiwan, attacks by the Houthis, and the wars in the Middle East and Europe by stating that bad things can happen when America doesn’t lead. He also stated that America has bolstered its strength with spending on infrastructure and in the Inflation Reduction Act.
After the two discussed China and Taiwan, attacks in the Red Sea, the Israel-Hamas war, and the Ukraine-Russia war, CNBC host Andrew Ross Sorkin asked, “We’ve talked about a number of issues around the world that you’re dealing with now. I’m curious if you look at them and think of them as all idiosyncratic unto themselves, or do you think that the United States, our role and influence, and perhaps diminished influence, has impacted and helped create these moments. You’ve heard a lot of critique about that.”
Blinken responded, “Look, here’s what I’ve taken away from about 30 years of doing this: one, when America’s not engaged, when we’re not leading, then one of two things: Either someone else is — and maybe not in a way that advances our interests and values — or maybe just as bad, no one is, and you get a vacuum that’s filled usually by bad things before it’s filled by good things. What I am hearing around the world everywhere I go is, a thirst, a hunger, a desire, for our engagement, for our leadership.”
Sorkin then cut in to say, “But you also talk about the polarization in Washington and the dysfunction in Washington.”
Blinken responded, “Well, we’ve done two things. Yes, we have those challenges, and happily, in this job, I don’t do politics back home. But, we’ve done two things that have been very powerful and that put us in a position of strength that we were not in in recent years: One, as I said, we’ve made investments in ourselves, and people know that. The CHIPS and Science Act, the Infrastructure Act, the IRA. All of these things are resonating around the world, because people see that we’re serious about our future. Second, the first thing that I was asked to do by President Biden was to roll up my sleeves and have everyone at the State Department do the same thing, re-engage our alliances and partnerships, rejuvenate them, reimagine them in some cases. And it’s those relationships, those partnerships, that are so vital, because, just as our leadership is essential, finding new ways to cooperate with others is more important than it’s ever been. We’re doing that. We have more convergence now, Andrew, with Europe, with Asia, on how to deal with a Putin or how to deal with the challenges posed by China.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
