Biden picks ambassadors to Israel, NATO, Mexico and more,
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden announced his first slate of political ambassadors Tuesday, selecting longtime Washington hands for key foreign postings.
Mr. Biden will nominate Thomas Nides, a former State Department official, to serve as the ambassador to Israel; Julie Smith, a former Biden national security adviser, as the ambassador to NATO; and Ken Salazar, the former secretary of the interior and senator from Colorado, as the ambassador to Mexico.
Mr. Biden will also nominate C.B. “Sully” Sullenberger III, who safely landed a plane on the Hudson River after a dual engine failure in 2009, as the ambassador to the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization and Cynthia Ann Telles, a UCLA professor of psychiatry, to serve as ambassador to Costa Rica.
If confirmed, Mr. Nides, a vice chairman at Morgan Stanley who served as deputy secretary of state in the Obama administration, will head to Israel at a time of major political upheaval. For the first time in more than a decade, Israel has a new prime minister after a governing coalition ousted Benjamin Netanyahu, the country’s longest-serving leader.
Ms. Smith is serving as a senior adviser to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and worked as a national security adviser to Mr. Biden when he was vice president. She would serve as the country’s envoy to NATO as the organization looks to take a more confrontational stance toward China, a landmark shift ushered in by Mr. Biden this week. She would also be tasked with rebuilding relationships with the group after President Donald Trump repeatedly threatened to withdraw the United States’ membership.
Mr. Salazar works as a partner at the law firm WilmerHale, and, if confirmed, he would head to Mexico amid ongoing issues at the U.S. border following a surge of migration at the start of Mr. Biden’s presidency. Vice President Kamala Harris has been tasked with working on the root causes of migration in the Northern Triangle region, and her first foreign trip included a stop in Mexico.
A number of other highprofile political ambassadorships are expected to be announced in the coming weeks and months, including former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel for Japan; R. Nicholas Burns, a former NATO ambassador, for China; and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti for India, according to people familiar with the process who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
Cindy McCain, the widow of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., is expected to be named envoy to the World Food Program; Mark Gitenstein, a former Biden aide and close friend, is in line for ambassador to the European Union; David Cohen, a Comcast executive who hosted Mr. Biden’s first official 2020 presidential fundraising event at his home in Philadelphia, is expected to be named ambassador to Canada; and Denise Bauer, who led a women’s support network for Mr. Biden, is probably headed to France.