WASHINGTON, D.C., July 1, 2022 – Continuing his responsibilities as The Bahamas’ top diplomat in the United States, His Excellency Wendall Jones, Bahamas Ambassador to the United States, recently met US Secretary of State Antony Blinken during a reception at The State Department.
Mr. Blinken was sworn in as the 71st U.S. Secretary of State on January 27, 2021.
“Over three decades and three presidential administrations, Mr. Blinken has helped shape U.S. foreign policy to ensure it protects U.S. interests and delivers results for the American people,” according to the State Department’s website “He served as deputy secretary of state for President Barack Obama from 2015 to 2017, and before that, as President Obama’s principal deputy national security advisor. In that role, Mr. Blinken chaired the interagency deputies committee, the main forum for hammering out the administration’s foreign policy.”
The website noted that during “the first term of the Obama Administration, Mr. Blinken was national security advisor to then-Vice President Joe Biden.”
“This was the continuation of a long professional relationship that stretched back to 2002, when Mr. Blinken began his six-year stint as Democratic staff director for the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee,” the website states. “Then-Senator Biden was the chair of that committee from 2001 to 2003 and 2007 to 2009.”
The website adds: “During the Clinton Administration, Mr. Blinken served as a member of the National Security Council staff, including two years as the senior director for European affairs, the president’s principal advisor on the countries of Europe, the European Union, and NATO. He also spent four years as President Clinton’s chief foreign policy speechwriter, and he led the NSC’s strategic planning team.
“Mr. Blinken’s public service began at the State Department. From 1993 to 1994, he was a special assistant in what was then called the Bureau of European and Canadian Affairs. Now he is proud to lead the department where he got his start in government nearly 30 years ago.”
