Washington: The Republican-led Senate has confirmed Rex Tillerson as President Donald Trump's secretary of state.
Senators voted 56-43 largely along party lines to approve Tillerson's nomination to be the nation's chief diplomat.
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Tillerson talks tough about Russia, China
At his confirmation hearing, Secretary of State nominee Rex Tillerson says Russia "poses a danger" and that China should be denied access to islands it has built in the South China Sea.
Tillerson's ties to Russia and his stand on sanctioning Moscow have been a point of contention.
Most Senate Democrats opposed Tillerson's nomination, angering Republicans who considered the former Exxon Mobil CEO to be highly qualified for the post.
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Senator Ben Cardin, the Foreign Relations Committee's top Democrat, said he feared Tillerson would be a "yes man" and would not be able to prevent Trump from pursuing a misguided foreign policy that leads the country "on a march of folly."
How Tillerson translates Trump's vow of "America First" into the kind of polite diplomatic parlance that will maintain vital alliances will be a significant test.
Among his other challenges are dealing with Trump's promises to recast relations with China and Russia, move the US Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, and re-examine an international nuclear deal with Iran.
A Texan, Tillerson, 64, earned an engineering degree from the University of Texas at Austin, got a job at Exxon in 1975 and climbed his way to the top, leaving only last year. Neither a diplomat, soldier nor politician, he is an unconventional choice for the job, but has vast international experience.
With operations on six continents, Exxon Mobil is in some ways a state within a state. As its chief executive, Tillerson struck deals with repressive governments -- in at least one case, against the advice of the State Department. Environmentalists largely opposed his nomination
But his views on international affairs are in many ways more conventional than those of Trump, which is why even Democratic-leaning foreign affairs experts said they welcomed his selection in hopes he would bring ballast to a turbulent administration.
"Rex Tillerson will have the most demanding and complex agenda to face a secretary of state in a very long time," said R. Nicholas Burns, a Harvard professor and career foreign service officer.
AP, New York Times