US Chargé d’Affaires Pro Tempore: Elizabeth Jones in New Delhi

Elizabeth Jones has previously held the positions of ambassador to Kazakhstan, acting assistant secretary of state for the near east, and assistant secretary of state for Europe and Eurasia.

Jones, whose parents worked in the American Foreign Service, was born in Munich and raised in Moscow and Berlin.

Jones has previously held the positions of ambassador to Kazakhstan, acting assistant secretary of state for the Near East, and assistant secretary of state for Europe and Eurasia. She is a Career Ambassador, the highest position in the Foreign Service.

The Biden administration has appointed senior Foreign Service officer Elizabeth Jones the Chargé d’Affaires ad interim at the US Embassy in New Delhi, an official announcement said.

The Biden administration had in July 2021 announced the nomination of Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti as the next U.S. Ambassador to India.

However, Mr. Garcetti’s nomination is yet to receive confirmation from the U.S. Senate.

M.S. Jones 74, who was the coordinator for Afghan relocation efforts recently, will depart to New Delhi soon, the State Department said in an announcement on Monday 24^th October, 2022.

Jones testified on the threat of terrorism in Central Asia before the United States House of Representatives’ subcommittee on the Middle East and Central Asia on 29^th October 2003.

She said the greatest threats to the Central Asian states are the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, which she described as an Islamic terrorist organization, and Hizb ut-Tahrir, which praises attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq.

She said that despite the death of IMU leader Juma Namangani, the “IMU is still active in the region particularly in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan and it represents a serious threat to the region and therefore to our interests.”

“In India, Ambassador Jones will join our Embassy and Consulate interagency teams in advancing and expanding the partnership. Between our governments and people, a partnership that Secretary Blinken has called one of the most consequential in the world.