Trump nominates US ambassador to Georgia, with 25-year of experience and state awards
Kelly C. Degnan will replace Ian Kelly as the US ambassador to Georgia. Photo: US Embassy to Italy.
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The US President Donald Trump has presented Californian Kelly C. Degnan for the role of the new US ambassador to Georgia.
Degnan has 25 years of diplomatic experience and is a recipient of the Secretary of State’s Expeditionary Service Award.
The post has been vacant since March 2018.
Degnan currently serves as the political advisor to the Commander of United States Naval Forces Europe – United States Naval Forces Africa.
Previously, she was deputy chief of mission of the United States Mission to Italy, deputy executive secretary of the Department of State, and Deputy Chief of Mission of the United States Embassy in Pristina, Kosovo.
Ambassador Ross Wilson arrived to take up duties as chargé d’affaires, [a diplomat who head a mission in the case of absence of an ambassador], at the American Embassy in Tbilisi on 8 November 2018. He left the country in mid-may and Elizabeth Rood served as an acting US ambassador.
During her 25-year career, she has served as political counselor at the United States Mission to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in Brussels, Belgium, senior civilian representative to Brigade Combat Team Salerno in Khost, Afghanistan, and deputy political counselor at the United States Embassy in Ankara, Turkey.
Trump’s administration says that she also served as a special assistant to the Secretary of State and to the Undersecretary for Political Affairs at the Department of State.
She speaks Italian, French, Turkish and Urdu.
Previous Ambassador Kelly announced his retirement once his mission in Georgia concluded at the end of March 2018, bringing an end to his 33-year career.
Georgian FM David Zalkaliani has welcomed the decision and vowed a close cooperation with the new ambassador after all mandatory procedures are completed.
She is the first US ambassador to Georgia under Trump’s administration,” Zalkaliani said.
Zalkaliani stated that the US is the strategic partner of Georgia and a key ally and the close cooperation will continue.
Deputy US Ambassador Elizabeth Rood has visited Bakuriani today to familiarise herself with a winter training course in the eastern, mountainous part of Georgia, involving soldiers from NATO members and ally countries, US and Georgia.
Acting US Ambassador to Georgia Elizabeth Rood says that Georgia is a safe country and Russia should remove the ban on direct flights to Georgia, which came into force on July 8.
US Ambassador to Georgia Ian Kelly has announced that he will retire once his mission in Georgia concludes at the end of March, bringing an end to a 33-year career.
Georgia has bipartisan support from the United States, says US Ambassador to Georgia Ian Kelly, following a major decision by the House of Representatives to continue supporting Georgia.
The United States President Donald Trump’s nominee for Ambassador to Georgia Kelly C. Degnan said if confirmed, she would “build on the productive partnership” that US and Georgia have developed so far.
Georgia has received $4,348,400,000 in financial aid from the United States between 1992 and 2020, the Congressional Research Service Report reads.
The US Senate has approved Kelly Degnan as the new ambassador of the US to Georgia, the diplomat who has 25 years of diplomatic experience and is a recipient of the Secretary of State’s Expeditionary Service Award. The US President Donald Trump presented Californian Degnan for the role in September 2019. Before the nomination to the post Degnan served as the political advisor to the Commander of United States Naval Forces Europe – United States Naval Forces Africa.
Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia has met with acting US Ambassador to Georgia Elisabeth Rood earlier today.
New US Ambassador to Georgia Kelly Degnan, who has 25 years of diplomatic experience, has been sworn in, the US Embassy to Georgia has reported earlier today, stating that ‘we are looking forward to [her] arrival in Georgia.” The swearing-in ceremony was attended by the US Under Secretary of State David Hale.
New US Ambassador to Georgia Kelly Degnan said in her recent swearing-in remarks at the US Department of State “there is no doubt that Georgia is an important and strategic partner for the United States”.