Trump names ExxonMobil CEO as the secretary of state

WASHINGTON, US: President-elect Donald Trump has officially elected the chief executive officer (CEO) of ExxonMobil Corporation, Rex Tillerson as the secretary of state. This has won a fight with US lawmakers who have questioned the oilman’s bond with Vladimir Putin, the Russian president.

Tillerson potentially faces difficulties getting confirmed in the Republican-controlled Assembly. Some lawmakers worry about his links to Moscow and opposition to US sanctions on Russia, which awarded him a friendship medal in 2013.

But several Republican people, including former Secretaries of State James Baker and Condoleezza Rice, and former Defense Secretary Robert Gates promised for Tillerson (64), who has spent more than 40 years at the oil company.

Rice and Gates, who have worked for Exxon as consultants, both issued statements of support.

Their support could be crucial for Tillerson receiving the approval he needs in the Senate, where Republicans will have a slim majority when Trump takes office on 20 January 2017.

"The fact that Rice, Baker and Gates are recommending Tillerson carries considerable weight," said Republican senator Jeff Flake, a member of the senate foreign relations committee.

By choosing Tillerson, Trump adds another person to his cabinet and circle of advisers who may favour a soft line toward Moscow, which is under US sanctions for its 2014 annexation of Crimea and at the centre of allegations that it launched cyber-attacks to disrupt the US presidential election.

Republicans will have a majority of just 52-48 in the Senate, and only a few defections from their ranks would block Tillerson if every Democrat also opposed him.

 'Fierce advocate'

Trump, on a success tour of states that supported him in the election, told them in West Allis, Wisconsin, that Tillerson "will be a fierce advocate for American interests around the world." He called him "a strong man, a tough man."

Trump disappointed US allies during his campaign by calling for a better relationship with Russia and questioning the usefulness of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the US-led military bloc created after World War II to counter the Soviet Union.

Trump has also promised to oppose China on trade and territorial issues and temporarily ban Muslims from entering the US, angering many Islamic countries.

Tillerson has foreign experience from years of cutting deals with foreign countries for his company, the world's largest energy firm. In 2012, Tillerson signed a deal with Russian state oil giant Rosneft to jointly develop oil fields in western Siberia.

He has been CEO of ExxonMobil since 2006 but like Trump he has never held public office.

Tillerson said in a statement that he shared the president-elect's "vision for restoring the credibility of the US.” ExxonMobil said its board would meet soon regarding its transition.

Trump was also dignified to add another figure with close ties to the oil industry to his Cabinet.

A source close to the changeover said Trump had chosen former Texas Governor Rick Perry, whose state is a leading oil producer, as his nominee for energy secretary, with an announcement expected soon.

In 2013, Putin gave a Russian state honour, the Order of Friendship, on Tillerson, quoting his work "strengthening cooperation in the energy sector."

There also has been controversy over alleged Russian interference in the presidential election, with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) concluding that Moscow had intruded to help Trump defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Tillerson's "cosy ties to Vladimir Putin and Russia would represent an indefensible battle at the State Department," representative Eliot Engel, the ranking Democrat on the House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs, said in a statement.

On another hand, a group of US state attorneys general is inspecting Exxon for allegedly misleading the public about climate change and some environmental groups are alarmed Exxon's CEO could be America's top diplomat.

Exxon has said it has acknowledged the reality of climate change for years. Tillerson told a congressional hearing in 2010 he thought humanity contributed to climate change but the science was unclear about the size of the contribution. "It is extremely complicated," he told the hearing.

After Trump's election, Exxon came out in support of the Paris Climate Agreement to combat climate change.

There also are concerns among lawmakers about former UN Ambassador John Bolton, who an adviser to Trump's transition team said was still under consideration for the deputy secretary of state role.

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