Washington: US President Joe Biden has announced his intent to nominate Indian-origin diplomat Puneet Talwar as the country’s ambassador to Morocco, the second such nomination of an Indian-American in a week.
Talwar, who is currently a Senior Advisor at the State Department, has held senior national security and foreign policy positions in the State Department, the White House and the Senate, the White House said as it announced several other senior administration positions.
He previously served as the Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs, Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director at the National Security Council, and as a Senior Professional Staff Member at the Committee on Foreign Relations in the United States Senate.
Talwar is the second person of Indian-origin to be nominated as the US ambassador in a week.
On March 11, Biden announced his intent to nominate Indian-origin political activist Shefali Razdan Duggal as his envoy to the Netherlands.
An immigrant to the US from Kashmir, Duggal, 50, has been raised in Cincinnati, Chicago, New York and Boston.
Her nomination has been sent to the Senate for confirmation.
According to the White House, Talwar’s public service also includes key roles in the US House of Representatives and the State Department’s Policy Planning Staff.
Outside of government, he has been a Senior Fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute, a Visiting Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania Penn Biden Center, a Counselor to the conflict resolution NGO InterMediate, and a non-resident Scholar at Georgetown University’s Center for Security Studies.
Talwar earned his BS Degree in Engineering from Cornell University and his MA in International Affairs from Columbia University. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a native of Washington, DC.
