State Department Recalls 29 Biden-Appointed Ambassadors

Authored by Jackson Richman via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The United States has recalled almost 30 career diplomats from ambassadorial roles.

All of the ambassadors were appointed under President Joe Biden and are senior members of the State Department’s Foreign Service, which produces career diplomats to serve in Washington and abroad.

These diplomats tend to stay in their roles for a few years and usually do not leave when there is a change in administration, as they are trained to carry out the president’s agenda, no matter which party occupies the White House.

The ambassadors were informed last week that their tenures will end in January. Those affected by the recalls will return to Washington and are able to take on other assignments.

A State Department official told The Epoch Times that ambassadors serve at the pleasure of the president.

“This is a standard process in any administration,” the official said.

“An ambassador is a personal representative of the president, and it is the president’s right to ensure that he has individuals in these countries who advance the America First agenda.”

Politico first reported the ambassadorial recalls.

“One of the reasons why President Trump was elected is sort of an understanding among the American people that our foreign policy was in need of a complete recalibration because the world has dramatically changed,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Dec. 19

“Many of the institutions, policies, assumptions that our foreign policy was operating under were built upon a world that no longer existed, and it required us to re-examine that.”

The 29 ambassadors recalled included 15 from Africa: Algeria (Elizabeth Aubin), Burundi (Lisa Peterson), Cameroon (Christopher Lamora), Cape Verde (Jennifer Adams), Egypt (Herro Mustafa Garg), Gabon (Vernelle Trim FitzPatrick), Ivory Coast (Jessica Davis Ba), Madagascar (Claire A. Pierangelo), Mauritius (Henry Jardine), Niger (Kathleen FitzGibbon), Nigeria (Richard Mills Jr.), Rwanda (Eric W. Kneedler), Senegal (Michael Raynor), Somalia (Richard Riley), and Uganda (William Popp).

There were eight recalled from the Asia-Pacific region: Fiji (Marie Damour), Laos (Heather Variava), Marshall Islands (Laura Stone), Nepal (Dean Thompson), Papua New Guinea (Ann Marie Yastishock), the Philippines (MaryKay Loss Carlson), Sri Lanka (Julie Chung), and Vietnam (Marc Knapper).

Four of the recalled ambassadors were from Europe: Armenia (Kristina Kvien), Macedonia (Angela Aggeler), Montenegro (Judy Reinke), and Slovakia (Gautam Rana).

Two were from the Americas: Guatemala (Tobin Bradley) and Suriname (Robert Faucher).

The Associated Press contributed to this report.