It is reasonable to expect that Belarus will welcome the U.S. ambassador in the summer of 2020.
“I am glad to be here at a moment when our bilateral relations are improving, when our American ambassador will come to Belarus this summer and our nations will find out that we have more in common than different,” state-run news agency BelTA quotes Jenifer Moore, Charge d’Affaires of the United States in Belarus.
In September 2019, top U.S. official David Hale held negotiations with Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka and Foreign Minister Uladzimir Makey. As a result, the two countries voiced their decision to renew diplomatic representation. Earlier, Belarus cut the U.S. Embassy staff to 5 from 35 persons; in 2008, the states recalled their ambassadors.
When meeting with Lukashenka in February, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that Washington would soon appoint an ambassador to Belarus. In turn, Uladzimir Makey confirmed the country’s readiness to send its ambassador to the United States in the near future.
In April, US President Donald Trump announced his intent to put Julie Fisher in charge of the diplomatic mission in Belarus. Ms Fisher currently serves as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Western Europe and the European Union in the State Department’s Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs.
Previously, Ms. Fisher was the Deputy Chief of Mission of the U.S. Mission to NATO; the Chief of Staff to the State Department’s Deputy Secretary for Management and Resources; and the Director of the State Department Operations Center. Earlier assignments include service as Deputy Director of the Private Office of the Secretary General of NATO and, before that, as Counselor for Political and Economic Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Tbilisi, Georgia. She also served on special assignment as Chargé d’Affaires a.i. of the U.S. Embassy in Russia.
On May 4, the US leader sent his nomination for Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Republic of Belarus for consideration of the US Senate.
