U.S. Says Will Put Anti-Corruption On Frontline of Diplomacy

The Biden administration is seeking to ensure that anti-corruption messages and activities are “a central part of its relationships around the world with partners and allies and even with adversaries,"  Biden's new anti-corruption czar said on Thursday, TURAN's U.S. correspondent reports.

Richard Nephew, the State Department’s first coordinator on global anti-corruption, was speaking to reporters during a briefing organized by the Department's Foreign Press Center.

Rooting out global corruption has been a major policy goal for the U.S. administration, as the Whiter House has made reining in graft a major peg in Biden's broader push for a worldwide democratic revival in the face of autocrats amassing power. In his first year, Biden also made fighting corruption a core national security interest and foreign policy priority.

"Part of the reason why I exist – at least in this capacity – is to ensure that we are bringing anti-corruption work into all of our foreign policy relationships and all of our foreign policy engagements," coordinator Nephew said. "We are bringing anti-corruption work into all of our foreign policy relationships and all of our foreign policy engagements."

Before Secretary Antony Blinken tapped Nephew for his current role two months ago, he was working as a deputy special envoy for Iran. During the Obama administration, he served as the sanctions expert on the team negotiating the Iran nuclear deal.

"... One of the things we found with the issue of corruption is it actually makes a lot of other problems much, much worse. And so that’s part of the reason why we’re emphasizing the fact that anti-corruption needs to be part of all of our international relationships and all of our important discussions with foreign leaders," Nephew added.

To help achieve their goals, Nephew and his team will work directly with foreign governments to bolster progress towards meeting global anti-corruption commitments, including by delivering "honest messages and providing assistance when appropriate to those that are failing to meet these international commitments; engaging with civil society and private sector counterparts to hear their perspectives, exchange practices, and explore ways to collaborate; and to look internally within the State Department to better integrate anti-corruption considerations into all aspects of U.S. foreign policy, and that’ll include amplifying what we’re doing right and looking very carefully at those things that we could be doing better," as Nephew put it.

Looking ahead, the U.S, will be co-hosting this December the biannual International Anti-Corruption Conference with Transparency International, which will bring together the global anti-corruption community around the theme of uprooting corruption, defending democratic values. The event will be open to civil society and government partners around the world, Nephew told TURAN's correspondent. 

"We are very much encouraging participation from everyone who is interested in joining with us and working against corruption. And there’ll be a number of workshops and events that will be alongside that conference that will explore the very specific issues that are in anti-corruption work, whether it’s beneficial ownership structures or similar"

And next year the Biden administration will have a range of international and bilateral convenings, as it will host the second Summit for Democracy in the first half of 2023, and will also host and assume the presidency of the UN Convention Against Corruption – Conference of the States Parties in late 2023. "This is the preeminent global forum on corruption and hosting this event will demonstrate U.S. leadership on efforts to counter corruption on the world stage," the coordinator said.

When asked about other tools that the U.S. is going to use to counter corruption abroad, Nephew said, "it’s going to depend on the country at hand and the problems and concerns that we and it has with its anti-corruption stance."

Washington will also continue to call out and promote accountability for corrupt actors through our Global Magnitsky and other financial sanctions programs and the State Department visa restrictions.

In the meantime, Nephew said, "there are going to be some circumstances in which sanctions are absolutely essential tool and a critical element of the effort; there are going to be some places where capacity-building programs are going to play an important role."

Alex Raufoglu

Washington D.C.