Rex Tillerson
| Rex Tillerson | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| |||
| 69th United States Secretary of State From: February 1, 2017-Present | |||
| President | Donald Trump | ||
| Predecessor | John Kerry | ||
| Successor | Incumbent (no successor) | ||
| Information | |||
| Party | Republican | ||
| Spouse(s) | Renda St. Clair | ||
Rex Tillerson is the 96th United States Secretary of State, serving in the Trump Administration. Earlier, he served as the head of ExxonMobil. Despite his support of the Paris climate agreement and other liberal viewpoints, Tillerson has been the focus of more media criticism than any other member of Trump's cabinet. This criticism is in response to his proposal to cut State Department's staff by 8 percent.[1]
In 1995, while Boris Yeltsin was the Russian president, Tillerson negotiated a deal with Vladimir Putin for exploration of oil reserves and oil drilling in Russia which included part ownership of the reserves and operating well sites for ExxonMobil.[2] The success of this deal, and the sorely needed revenues brought into the Russian government's treasury, enhanced Putin's rise as Yeltsin's successor. This deal differed from many past oil concession deals involving American companies. For example, under the joint effort of the Arab-American Oil Company (later Aramco), ownership of the reserves, which tend to have far greater value than operating well sites, remained with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, whereas only the costs of production from operating wells and profits were split evenly between the Saudi kingdom and a consortium of US oil companies.
In 2013 Tillerson was awarded the Russian Order of Friendship.
References
- ↑ The very best stories of how Rex Tillerson is destroying the State Department", American Thinker, December 13, 2017
- ↑ [1]