If that wasn’t sufficient, Thomas-Greenfield will assume management of the U.N. Safety Council on March 1 — the worldwide group’s prime decision-m
If that wasn’t sufficient, Thomas-Greenfield will assume management of the U.N. Safety Council on March 1 — the worldwide group’s prime decision-making physique — earlier than the packing containers of her 40th flooring house overlooking the Hudson River are even unpacked.
Thomas-Greenfield will likely be sworn-in Wednesday morning by Vice President Kamala Harris, and can arrive in New York Feb. 25 to current her credentials to U.N. Secretary Normal António Guterres.
U.N. officers informed POLITICO they hope to see each a return of American management and a again cost of unpaid American U.N. dues underneath Thomas-Greenfield’s management.
President Joe Biden made an preliminary dedication of $four billion on Feb. 18 towards international vaccine efforts resembling COVAX, and broader well being safety investments.
After 4 years of Trump-induced whiplash and withdrawal from key U.N. entities — together with the World Well being Group — the sense of aid round Turtle Bay is palpable, even with thinned out attendance and a largely digital assembly schedule.
“It might solely get higher,” stated an adviser to Guterres who was not approved to talk to the media. “We’re cautiously optimistic,” they added.
U.N. Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric stated Thomas-Greenfield and Guterres first labored collectively in 2005, when Thomas-Greenfield led the state Division’s refugee and migration division and Guterres served because the U.N. Excessive Commissioner for Refugees. “He has witnessed her effectiveness and dedication in motion,” Dujarric stated.
Guterres’s prime political precedence for 2021 is local weather change, and international progress now hinges on the skill of the Biden administration to maneuver past its preliminary gesture of rejoining the Paris local weather accord.
The present Safety Council chief, U.Ok. Ambassador Barbara Woodward, informed POLITICO the Britain is worked up to work with Thomas-Greenfield, “particularly on shared priorities resembling local weather and Covid-19.” Woodward as we speak succeeded in pushing local weather change onto the agenda of the Safety Council, in a debate led by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, which additionally featured the Biden administration’s new local weather envoy, John Kerry.
Challenges on China loom
Europe is providing to behave as a bridge between the U.S. and China, stated one European ambassador. “Guterres has urged us to play the position of bridge builder. Until we will make the 2 of them work collectively on local weather and Covid, the U.N. agenda stays paralyzed,” the ambassador stated.
Thomas-Greenfield, a 35-year veteran on the State Division, confronted robust questions in her Senate affirmation hearings over the extent to which she is going to confront Chinese language authoritarianism and regional meddling. She promised in her affirmation listening to to advertise American values of democracy, human rights, and peace.
Her deep expertise throughout Africa will likely be obligatory, consultants and advocates say, to advance U.S. relationships and include China’s rising affect throughout the U.N. system.
These tensions will possible come to a head in debates over fairness in Covid vaccine distribution. “We consider Linda Thomas-Greenfield’s background as former Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs makes her extraordinarily certified to know the size of this disaster and the significance of U.S.-Africa coverage,” stated Sean Simons, spokesperson for the anti-poverty ONE marketing campaign.
Thomas-Greenfield is the fifth consecutive girl to be confirmed as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. 5 of the 15 Safety Council ambassadors are girls.
“Rather less testosterone and a bit extra dialogue, affected person listening and a capability to facilitate – they’re undervalued qualities, notably when there’s loads of rigidity between a number of the huge gamers on the desk,” Eire’s ambassador Geraldine Byrne Nason informed the Irish Instances.