US Senate confirms Asia hand Kurt Campbell as country’s No. 2 diplomat

By Patricia Zengerle

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to approve veteran Asia hand Kurt Campbell, a top national security aide to President Joe Biden, as deputy secretary of state, the No. 2 position at the State Department.

The Senate voted 92 to 5 to confirm Campbell, currently coordinator for Indo-Pacific Affairs on the National Security Council. He previously founded and led the Asia Group, a strategy advisory and capital management group.

Campbell’s selection for the position reflected the importance of the U.S.-China relationship. China poses a daunting diplomatic challenge for the United States, which wants to counter its growing military without provoking a conflict and to curb what Washington views as the country’s unfair business practices while avoiding an all-out trade war.

Campbell, 66, is viewed as an intellectual author of then-President Barack Obama’s “pivot to Asia” strategy, a vaunted but so far still limited rebalancing of resources to the region.

He outlined his approach to Asia in a 2016 book “The Pivot,” which advocated strengthening existing alliances and building closer relations with states like India and Indonesia in the face of a rising China.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle, additional reporting by Steve Holland; editing by Chizu Nomiyama)