US Senate confirms new ambassador to Vietnam

By Staff reporters   October 26, 2017 | 07:34 pm PT
US Senate confirms new ambassador to Vietnam
Daniel Kritenbrink, the incoming U.S. ambassador to Vietnam. Photo by AFP
Daniel Kritenbrink is a career diplomat with extensive experience in Asian affairs. 

President Donald Trump’s nominee for U.S. ambassador to Vietnam received confirmation from the Senate on Thursday.

Daniel Kritenbrink, a Virginia native, is a career diplomat with extensive experience in Asian affairs. He has been a diplomat since 1994 and currently works as senior advisor for North Korea policy at the State Department, the White House said in a statement following his nomination in July.

He once worked as deputy chief of mission in Beijing and speaks Chinese and Japanese, the statement said.

The current U.S. ambassador to Vietnam, Ted Osius, was nominated by President Barack Obama in May 2014. Osius is expected to conclude his term by the end of this year but he plans on staying on in Vietnam to work in the education sector.

Osius has already taken to Facebook to vouch for his successor.

“I’ve known the President's nominee to be Ambassador, Daniel J. Kritenbrink, for decades, and I can’t think of a better diplomat to build on the positive momentum of the current U.S.-Vietnam relationship,” he said.

David Brown, a retired veteran U.S. diplomat, told VnExpress International that “Kritenbrink has deep experience in east Asian affairs including service for the past two years as the senior officer for Asia and Pacific on the National Security Council."

“His intimate knowledge of the foreign policy ‘process’ and close relationships with other senior Asia hands will be a key to Kritenbrink’s effectiveness in Hanoi,” Brown said.

 
 
go to top