Rubio on track to take office quickly as US secretary of state

US Senator Marco Rubio, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to be secretary of state, arrives ahead of Trump’s inauguration in the US Capitol – Copyright POOL/AFP Kevin Lamarque

A Senate committee on Monday fast-tracked Marco Rubio’s nomination to be US secretary of state, paving the way for him to take over quickly as top diplomat under President Donald Trump.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee — of which Rubio, a senator from Florida, has been a member — voted unanimously to approve his nomination, sending it to the full Senate.

The quick vote stands in contrast to Trump’s more controversial nominees who either await contested votes or, in some cases, have not yet had confirmation hearings.

“We are glad to have worked in a bipartisan way to ensure that one of our own, Senator Marco Rubio, could be positioned to quickly take the helm of the State Department,” the committee’s Republican chair, Jim Risch, and its top Democrat, Jeanne Shaheen, said in a joint statement.

“The national security of the United States is this committee’s primary focus — and it is to the benefit of our country to have steady leadership in place as soon as possible,” they said.

“We believe that Senator Rubio has the skills, knowledge and experience to lead the department.”

Rubio, who would succeed Antony Blinken, would become the first Hispanic and first fluent Spanish speaker to become the top US diplomat.

He would immediately have the task of executing the diplomacy of Trump, who in an inauguration speech Monday renewed threats to seize the Panama Canal but also pledged to be a “peacemaker.”

Rubio, the working-class son of Cuban immigrants who bitterly opposed Fidel Castro’s communist revolution, is known for his hawkish stance toward Latin American authoritarian states and China.

In his confirmation hearing last week, Rubio accused China of cheating its way to superpower status and called the Asian power “the most potent and dangerous near-peer adversary this nation has ever faced.”

Rubio was once a political foe of Trump, who belittled him as “Little Marco” when he sought the Republican presidential nomination in 2016.

But Rubio has since rallied behind Trump while remaining well liked by senators across the political divide, with several Democrats on the committee describing him as a friend.