President Joe Biden’s proposed funding request for aid to Ukraine will be spent in American cities, Secretary of State Antony Blinken told an audience of U.S. mayors.
“The money that we’re requesting and that will go to supporting Ukraine’s military, almost all of that will actually be invested in the United States, including in a number of your cities,” Blinken told the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
Blinken explained that much of the funding will support the manufacturing of U.S.-made weapons “which can then be provided to Ukraine.” His pitch positioned the aid package as an economic boon for the mayors, overlaid with the strategic value that U.S. officials attach to helping Ukrainian forces fend off Russia’s invasion.
“And Putin himself, if he had not been stopped in trying to do what he was trying to do in Ukraine, almost certainly would not have stopped at Ukraine, might have gone after other countries, including countries in NATO where we have responsibilities to actually come in and protect them,” Blinken said. “Right now, it’s Ukrainians fighting on the ground for their country, for their future, for their freedom.”
That argument has bipartisan appeal in Washington, D.C., but Ukraine aid nonetheless has been entangled in political controversy. The frequent juxtaposition of Biden’s support for Ukraine with a border crisis and high inflation has galvanized public skepticism of the aid proposals, particularly among Republican voters. So House Republicans have hesitated to appropriate new funding for Ukraine in a bid to use Biden’s request as leverage to force the White House to acquiesce to new border security measures.
Blinken, for his part, paired the case for Ukraine aid with a defense of Biden’s attempt to grapple with the fentanyl crisis, which is fueled in part by a supply chain that runs through Latin America to China.
“More and more countries around the world were getting deeply concerned about synthetic opioids, and if China was seen as part of the problem, that wasn’t going to be good for them,” Blinken said in a summary of the argument that U.S. officials made in the lead-up to Biden’s November meeting with Chinese General Secretary Xi Jinping. “The agreement … led now to China taking a very — much more positive role in doing something about this. [They are] making clear to their companies that they can’t be in the business of taking these ingredients and shipping them off to Mexico or anywhere else. Second, and even more important, they actually cracked down on the businesses that were doing this and took down dozens of companies.”
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While Blinken acknowledged the value of “subnational diplomacy” — he appointed a special representative last year tasked with orchestrating international dialogue at the city and state level — he signaled Friday that he has no desire for a domestic electoral career.
“I’m leaving that to all of you,” Blinken said when asked if he’d ever run for office. “I admire all of you because putting yourself out there in that way, especially now, in these days, I know how challenging that is, how tough that is.”