IBNS-CMEDIA: US President Donald Trump has nominated Natalie A. Baker as the next US ambassador to Pakistan, marking the first nomination for a permanent envoy to Islamabad after a gap of nearly two years.
“Natalie Baker, of Texas, a Career Member of the Senior Foreign Service, Class of Minister-Counselor, to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan,” the White House said in a statement.
According to reports, the US administration has forwarded her nomination to the Senate for confirmation.
Who Is Natalie Baker?
Natalie A. Baker, a Minister-Counselor in the US Senior Foreign Service, assumed charge as Chargé d’Affaires at the US Embassy in Islamabad in January 2025.
She arrived in Islamabad in August 2024 to take up the position of Deputy Chief of Mission, according to the US Embassy in Pakistan’s website.
From August 2021 to July 2024, Baker served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the US Embassy in Doha, Qatar. Before that, she was Director of the Office of North African Affairs in the State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs.
Baker has also served as Deputy Chief of Mission and Chargé d’Affaires at the US Mission to Libya, Deputy Director of the Iran Regional Presence Office at the US Consulate in Dubai, and Economic Counselor at the US Embassy in Kuwait.
Between 2009 and 2011, she served as Political and Economic Counselor in Libya, during a period when bilateral relations were being restored after a nearly 30-year hiatus. She remained in the country until the Libyan Revolution forced the US Embassy to evacuate in February 2011.
Her other diplomatic assignments include serving as Special Assistant in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, Consular Officer at the US Embassy in Islamabad, and Cultural Affairs Officer in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan.
Baker holds a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and a master’s degree in public policy from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. She is also a 2017 Distinguished Graduate of the National War College at the National Defense University.
Her foreign language skills include Arabic, Spanish, Farsi and Russian.
