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January 21, 2021
WASHINGTON: The new US administration plans to continue building relations with Pakistan and especially with its military on key issues. Pakistan is an essential partner in any peace process in Afghanistan, the nominated Secretary of Defence, Gen Lloyd Austin, told a panel of the Senate Arms Services Committee during his confirmation hearing on Tuesday. If confirmed, I will encourage a regional approach that garners support from neighbours like Pakistan, while also deterring regional actors, from serving as spoilers to the Afghanistan peace process,” he said.
Gen Austin has served as a head of the U.S. Central Command. If confirmed, he will be the first African American to hold the position.
By Erick Johnson
General Lloyd Austin
She won Chicago’s powerful Black electorate to win her first term as U.S. Senator from Illinois. Today, Senator Tammy Duckworth is standing firm against granting a waiver to allow retired Army General Lloyd Austin to be confirmed as the nation’s first Black Secretary of Defense. Her mentor, fellow Senator Dick Durbin, who once again swept Chicago’s 18 Black wards, remains silent on whether he will grant President-elect Joe Biden’s nomination a waiver.
Both Duckworth and Durbin in 2016 were among 17 senators who voted against a waiver to Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. He prevailed anyway with 81senators voting in favor of his waiver. Duckworth and Durbin were among 98 out of 99 senators who later voted to confirm Mattis as Defense Secretary.