President of the United States (US) Donald Trump has nominated Natalie Baker, the current charge d’affaires at the US embassy in Islamabad, to serve as the next US ambassador to Pakistan, according to a White House statement.
The nomination has been sent to the US Senate for consideration. Its Foreign Relations Committee will review the appointment before it can move to a vote in the full Senate.
Baker will take up the post if Senate confirms her nomination.
She assumed the role of charge d’affaires at the US embassy in Islamabad in January 2025 after the departure of then-ambassador Donald Armin Blome.
Baker arrived in Islamabad in August 2024 to serve as the deputy chief of mission, according to her official profile on the embassy’s website.
Before her posting in Pakistan, she served as deputy chief of mission at the US embassy in Doha from August 2021 to July 2024.
Her previous diplomatic assignments also included serving as deputy chief of mission and charge d’affaires at the US Mission to Libya, deputy director of the Iran Regional Presence Office at the US consulate in Dubai and economic counsellor at the US embassy in Kuwait.
She also headed the Office of North African Affairs at the US State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs.
According to her embassy profile, Baker served as political and economic counsellor in Libya from 2009 to 2011, when relations between the two countries were being normalised after a pause of nearly three decades.
“From 2009-2011, Natalie served as the political and economic counsellor in Libya, as the bilateral relationship was normalising after a nearly 30-year pause. She remained in Libya until the Libyan Revolution forced the embassy to evacuate in February 2011,” the profile stated.
