Washington |Antony Blinken, a defender of global alliances and President-elect Joe Biden's closest foreign policy adviser, is expected to be nominated for secretary of state, a job in which he will try to coalesce sceptical international partners into a new competition with China, according to people close to the process.

Mr Blinken, 58, a former deputy secretary of state under President Barack Obama, began his career at the State Department during the Clinton administration. His extensive foreign policy credentials are expected to help calm US diplomats and global leaders alike after four years of the Trump administration's ricocheting strategies and nationalist swaggering.