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Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
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Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
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Thiranjala Weerasinghe sj.- One Island Two Nations
?????????????????????????????????????????????????Wednesday, June 7, 2017
Top US diplomat in China quits over Trump climate policy
Trump refers to amounts of temperature change as he announces his decision that the US will withdraw from the landmark Paris Climate Agreement, in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, on June 1, 2017. Source: Reuters
Trump refers to amounts of temperature change as he announces his decision that the US will withdraw from the landmark Paris Climate Agreement, in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, on June 1, 2017. Source: Reuters
Tillerson is among the only State Department’s senior officers currently left, alongside Sullivan and Shannon. Source: Reuters
DAVID RANK, the chargé d’affaires of the United States Embassy in
Beijing, has left the State Department over the Trump administration’s
decision to quit the 2015 Paris agreement to fight climate change, a
senior US official said on Monday.
A State Department spokeswoman confirmed Rank’s departure, but said she
was unable to verify Twitter posts that said he resigned as he felt
unable to deliver a formal notification to China of the US decision last week to quit the agreement.
“He has retired from the foreign service,” said Anna Richey-Allen, a spokeswoman for the department’s East Asia Bureau.
“Mr Rank has made a personal decision. We appreciate his years of dedicated service to the State Department.”
Iowa Governor Terry Branstad, President Donald Trump’s pick as the next
ambassador to Beijing, is expected to take up the post later this month.
A tweet from China expert
John Pomfret quoted unnamed sources as saying Rank had resigned as he
could not support Trump’s decision last week to withdraw from the Paris
agreement.
Another tweet from Pomfret said Rank called a town hall meeting to
announce his decision to embassy staff and explained he could not
deliver a diplomatic note informing the Chinese government of the decision.
A senior US official confirmed the account given in the tweets, but said
after Rank announced his intention to retire on Monday in Beijing, he
was told by the State Department to leave his post immediately. The
official spoke on condition of anonymity.
On June 1, the US State Department accepted the resignation of its top
personnel officer, who had been among its few remaining senior Obama
administration political appointees, another US official said.
Arnold Chacon had served as the director-general of the foreign service and director of human resources.
The official said Chacon had tendered his resignation when Trump was
inaugurated on Jan 20, along with all presidential appointees, who serve
at the pleasure of the president and secretary of state.
The acceptance of Chacon’s resignation was first reported by the DiploPundit website.
It was not immediately clear whether he would be offered another post at the department.
Other than Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, his deputy John Sullivan
and Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Tom Shannon, the
third-ranking US diplomat, most of the State Department’s senior posts are currently vacant or filled by acting officials.
Chacon and Rank, a career foreign service officer who took over the post
of deputy chief of mission in Beijing in January 2016, could not
immediately be reached for comment.
The embassy’s economics councillor Jonathan Fritz would serve as chargé in his place, Richey-Allen said.
Rank had been with the department for 27 years and served as the
political councillor at the US Embassy in Afghanistan from 2011 to 2012.
Trump’s announcement on Thursday that he would withdraw the US from the
Paris climate accord, saying the agreement would undermine the US
economy and cost jobs, drew anger and condemnation from world leaders
and heads of industry. – Reuters