Rex Tillerson, the chief executive of petroleum multinational ExxonMobil will be the U.S. Secretary of State under incoming President Donald Trump. The selection of Mr. Tillerson, who has close ties with Russia and President Vladimir Putin, portends a significant deviation from the existing U.S. foreign policy.
“His tenacity, broad experience and deep understanding of geopolitics make him an excellent choice for Secretary of State. He will promote regional stability and focus on the core national security interests of the U.S. Rex knows how to manage a global enterprise, which is crucial to running a successful State Department, and his relationships with leaders all over the world are second to none,” Mr. Trump said in a statement on Tuesday.
The announcement came close on the heels of a disclosure by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) that the Russian government authorised cyber attacks on the U.S. in order to facilitate Mr. Trump’s election. Mr. Trump has ridiculed the claim, even as Congressional leaders of both parties called for an investigation into it.
Collision course
The latest addition to it could set the Trump administration on a collision course with Republican and Democratic leaders in Congress and the U.S. strategic policy establishment, all of who consider Russia inimical to the U.S. interests. The Secretary of State requires a confirmation by the Senate.
Mr. Tillerson has never held a public office in his life and little is known about his views on international affairs. But the 64-year-old has developed ties with leaders of many countries in his 40-year career. He has been sceptical of the U.S sanctions against Russia, and has expressed interest as a corporate head to do business with Iran. Under him, ExxonMobil turned around to accept climate change is real and it issued a statement in support of the Paris Climate Agreement. The company also favours a carbon tax now. Mr. Tillerson believes human action is required to combat climate change, but views it as an “engineering problem, which has engineering solutions”.
Mr. Putin presented Mr. Tillerson with the Order of Friendship, a high honour for a foreigner from Russia, in 2013. By choosing Mr. Tillerson over Mitt Romney, a former Republican presidential candidate who was under consideration for the post, Mr. Trump has risked a new confrontation with the Republican orthodoxy. “I look forward to learning more about his record and his views,” said Marco Rubio, Senator from Florida, in a statement issued after the announcement, leaving the door open for negotiations. “While Rex Tillerson is a respected businessman, I have serious concerns about his nomination,” he said.
“He will likely continue to work with India in creating a new architecture for Indo-Pacific security,” said Aparna Pande, Director, Initiative on the Future of India and South Asia, at Hudson Institute, Washington. “Mr. Tillerson’s views on most aspects of U.S. Foreign Policy are not known. What is known is that he will serve as a bridge to Russia and probably shares President-elect Trump’s worldview of international relations as a series of business-like deals. If….Mr Tillerson enjoys the backing of establishment Republican Party figures like James Baker and Condi Rice, then he will act like any other conservative Secretary of State in asserting U.S. interests abroad,” she said. Ms. Rice, former Defence Secretary Robert Gates and former Vice-President Richard B. Cheney have supported the selection.
Another keen observer of Washington politics, who did not want to named, identified three reasons why Mr. Tillerson could be good news for India. “He is non-ideological and would be familiar with India as a big energy market. Secondly, if he resets U.S. relations with Russia, it could only help India. Most important of all, for a person who has operated on a global level in the energy market, maintaining the U.S. role in the world will be a priority, which will also be good for India.”
Added Michael Kugelman, senior associate for South and Southeast Asia at the Woodrow Wilson Center: “On a geopolitical level, Mr. Tillerson’s strong ties to Moscow, while problematic for many in Washington, may ultimately be beneficial for U.S.-India relations given New Delhi’s own strong ties to Moscow.”
According to Richard M. Rossow, Wadhwani Chair in U.S. India Policy Studies at The Center for Strategic and International Studies, Mr. Tillerson represents “a bit of a wild card” for India. “Exxon Mobil’s India operations are fairly modest, so he has not had to take a visible position on the relationship in the past. But U.S.-India economic ties are relatively under-developed compared to U.S.-India security ties, so there is room to grow — and his experience in the business world could prove quite valuable.”
“He will have an early opportunity to outline his approach to India when the U.S. hosts the Strategic and Commercial Dialogue in the middle of 2017 in Washington, DC,” he added.
