US Senate panel confirms Trump's pick for secretary

 The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee has confirmed the newly inaugurated U.S. President Donald Trump's pick for Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Monday by a 11-10 vote, clearing the way for a confirmation vote by the full chamber.

"Diplomacy has been a critical component of his positions in the past. He has shown himself to be an exceptionally able and successful negotiator who has maintained deep relationships around the world," Chairman of the committee Bob Corker said of Tillerson, former ExxonMobil chief executive.

Republican Senator Marco Rubio had expressed reservations regarding Tillerson's position on Russia, but he said he would vote for Tillerson earlier Monday.

"Given the uncertainty that exists both at home and abroad about the direction of our foreign policy, it would be against our national interests to have this confirmation unnecessarily delayed or embroiled in controversy," Rubio said.

At a Senate hearing earlier this month, Tillerson, calling Russia a "danger" to the United States, said he favored maintaining U.S. sanctions against Moscow.

"Russia today poses a danger, but it is not unpredictable in advancing its own interests," said Tillerson. "Our NATO allies are right to be alarmed at a resurgent Russia."

Tillerson was widely known for opposing sanctions against Russia in his ExxonMobil corporate life. But he refused to label Russian President Vladimir Putin a war criminal as he had known him since the 1990s and was awarded Order of Friendship in 2013 by Putin.

source: Xinhua