US Ambassador Betty E King makes Geneva press debut
Betty E King, press breakfast at the US Mission in Geneva 1 April 2010
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – “There is no better time to be here,” Betty E King, the new US ambassador to the United Nations and International Organizations in Geneva, told a group of journalists invited to the US Mission in Geneva Thursday morning, 1 April. King knows Geneva from time spent in the city when she was the US representative to Ecosoc (UN Economic and Social Council) and from working with UNDP (UN Development Programme). She arrived nearly five weeks ago to take up her new post, replacing Warren Tichenor, who left a year ago, shortly before Barack Obama became president.
“Geneva is seeing a resurgence of diplomatic activity,” she says.
Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe, US ambassador
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The US Senate has approved two more nominations by President Barack Obama for ambassador posts in Geneva: Laura Kennedy as Ambassador and Representative to the Conference on Disarmament, and of Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe as the United States Representative to the UN Human Rights Council, with the rank of Ambassador. Betty E King, who heads the US Mission in Geneva, was approved in February by the Senate and presented her credentials to the UN 3 March.
Michael Punke’s nomination as Ambassador to the World Trade Organziation is still pending.
Ed. note: photo of Laura Kennedy not yet available, but we will add it once it is.
Background on Kennedy and Chamberlain Donahoe nominations, GenevaLunch
Link to US Mission, Geneva with biographies of both new ambassadors
Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe (image: Cisac, Stanford University)
Update 18:50 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - US President Barack Obama has nominated two more women for key posts in Geneva. Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe is nominated as US ambassador to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, as a member of the US Mission to the United Nations. Her name had been circulating earlier in the year as a possible candidate for the post of US Ambassador to the UN in Geneva, and thus head of the US Mission, but Obama 24 October nominated Betty King for that post.
Laura Kennedy has been nominated as US ambassador to the Conference on Disarmament (CoD), as part of the Department of State, but the CoD is based in Geneva. The Conference has 65 member nations, and it famously ended a 12-year stalemate in May 2009 with a new work programme. The new agenda’s priority work is to develop the Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty, which would end production of fissile materials for use in atomic bombs.
The two nominations, as well as that of Betty King, are subject to review by the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, which then makes recommendations to the full Senate, and it votes on each appointment. The process normally takes two to three months.
