Alwaght- The US President-elect has reportedly decided to install the ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillersron as his secretary of state.
Tillersron is known of having good relations with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin after they got close during an oil related deal negotiation.
Trump arrived at the decision on Monday night, sources within his transition team said, noting that the incoming Republican president would officially announce his pick on Tuesday morning.
The reports gain more credibility after a Facebook post by close Trump confidante and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich published sying:
“Rex Tillerson will be an extremely effective Secretary of State. He knows the world, he knows how to make deals internationally, and although it's hard for the Washington elites to comprehend that Donald J. Trump could nominate someone who is not a bureaucrat, Tillerson has exactly the right kind of determination and toughness we need to fix the State Department”.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Tillerson negotiated an energy partnership with Russia in 2011. The Russian President said the deal could be valued at approximately $500bn. The following year, the Kremlin awarded Tillerson with the Order of Friendship, the country's highest honor for foreign nationals.
Russia faced sanctions after the annexation of Crimea, and thus ExxonMobil had to cease operations in 2014. But the head of the oil giant's Russian operations, Glenn Waller, said the company would return to the project once the sanctions were lifted. Tillerson could certainly expedite the lift of those sanctions as the US's top diplomat.
"If you are trying to lift sanctions on Russia and get back to business with Vladimir Putin, Rex Tillerson would be an excellent choice," former US ambassador to Russia for the Obama administration, Michael McFaul, told BuzzFeed News.
Tillerson went to Trump Tower in New York City on Saturday to meet with the real estate magnate, a meeting that drew fire from the both sides of the aisle.
Republican Senator John McCain, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the nature of Tillerson’s ties with Moscow was a “matter of concern.”
“I don’t know what Mr. Tillerson’s relationship with Vladimir Putin was, but I’ll tell you it is a matter of concern to me,” he told Fox News on Saturday.
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) and environmental group Green Peace also reacted negatively to the news.
“Trump's outrageous pick of Rex Tillerson to be Secretary of State demonstrates once again that he lied to the country about draining the swamp," DNC spokesman Adam Hodge said in a statement.
He said the choice amounted to another victory for Putin after the election of the New York businessman, who favors cooperation with Moscow.
