Blinken tells AP he's worried Trump administration may abandon key Biden foreign policy initiatives

WASHINGTON — Outgoing Secretary of State Antony Blinken told The Associated Press that he hopes the incoming Trump administration will press forward with key points in President Joe Biden's foreign policy, including on the Middle East and Ukraine.

But in an wide-ranging interview Friday on his last workday as America's top diplomat, he expressed concern that the Trump team might abandon all or some of those policies.

Blinken said there is reason to be concerned that the new administration might not follow through on initiatives that Biden's national security team put into place to end the war in Gaza, help Ukraine get free of Russian interference and maintain strengthened alliances with key partners.

''When we came in, we inherited partnerships and alliances that were seriously frayed," he said. "So if past is prologue, yes, it would be a concern.''

''I don't know — can't know — how they approach things,'' Blinken added. ''I do think that there is, there could and I believe should be, some real continuity in a couple of places.''

Trump's diverging views on foreign policy

President-elect Donald Trump has been skeptical of U.S. alliances, including NATO and defense partnerships in the Asia-Pacific, all of which the Biden team has worked to shore up over the past four years. Trump has also been critical of U.S. military aid to Ukraine and has praised Russian President Vladimir Putin.

But Trump's incoming Middle East envoy has been deeply involved in helping the Biden administration broker a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas. Both incoming and outgoing presidents claimed credit for the breakthrough this week.

''The best laid plans: There's, of course, no guarantee that our successors will look to them, rely on them,'' Blinken said. ''But at least there's that option. At least they can decide whether this is a good basis for proceeding and make changes.''

Efforts to reach the Trump's transition team for comment were not immediately successful.

Blinken and the Biden administration overall have been heavily criticized for their handling of the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 and, more recently, for their support for Israel in its war against Hamas. Critics accuse them of not imposing meaningful restrictions on weapons shipments to Israel or pushing its ally hard enough to ease a humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

On Thursday, protests accusing Blinken of complicity in Israeli violence against Palestinian civilians interrupted his final appearance in the State Department press briefing room, and demonstrators have routinely gathered outside his home.

Blinken lamented that the Biden administration has been diverted from its central foreign policy priorities by world developments, including the withdrawal from Afghanistan, Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the Gaza crisis, all of which took time and energy away from pursuing core objectives, notably in the Indo-Pacific.

These are ''not what we came in wanting or expecting to have to be focused on,'' he said.

Blinken's legacy has been praised and criticized

Yet, Blinken's time in office will likely be remembered for those three crises, for which he has received both praise and heavy criticism.

The Biden administration decided to move ahead with Trump's first-term decision to pull U.S. troops out of Afghanistan. Just months after taking office, Blinken was charged with overseeing the withdrawal, marked by a devastating attack outside the Kabul airport that killed 13 U.S. service members and 170 Afghans as people tried to flee the Taliban.

Trump and other Republicans have routinely attacked the Biden administration for its handling of the withdrawal, which had been set in motion a year earlier by Trump.

Later, Blinken and other U.S. officials warned about a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine for months and sought unsuccessfully to prevent it. In early 2022, Blinken devoted much of his time and energy to the situation in Ukraine, traveling to world capitals to make the case to support Ukraine.

After a last-ditch bid in late January 2022 to warn Moscow against proceeding with the war, the Biden administration was able to rally NATO allies and like-minded partners to support Kyiv.

Finally, the administration, in response to the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks in Israel, which began the war in Gaza, has been castigated both for being too supportive of Israel and not supportive enough.

Blinken is sensitive to such criticism and said Friday that he and his team endeavored to work in America's interests in all three instances.

''We, and the State Department in particular, would like to be remembered for setting a new and stronger foundation for the United States in the world for the future — a foundation that allows us to deal with this incredible multiplicity, complexity, interconnectedness of challenges from a position of strength," he said. "And that foundation is this renewal of our alliances and partnerships.''

''I hope that the benefits are such and are so clear that future administrations will in one way or another continue them,'' he said.

Blinken bids farewell to the State Department

The interview, conducted in Blinken's office on the seventh floor of the State Department, followed his farewell remarks to the agency's staffers. He urged career personnel to carry on in their mission amid uncertainty about how the incoming administration will handle relationships and rivalries abroad or treat career American diplomats.

Blinken paid tribute to their work over the past four years and called for them to remain resilient.

''Without you in the picture, this world, our country would look so much different,'' Blinken told a cheering crowd of several hundred staffers.

Trump has been publicly skeptical of the State Department and its traditional role in crafting administration foreign policy.

Trump once referred to the agency as the ''Deep State Department,'' and he and his associates have made no secret of their desire to purge career officials who do not show sufficient loyalty to the president. His choice to be Blinken's successor, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, has said he respects the foreign service, but he has not yet detailed any plans for how the department will be managed.