U.S. Charge d’Affairs says Senate must approve amdassador

Last week Friday the White House announced the nomination of Vinai Thummalapally as the new U.S. Ambassador to Belize to replace former ambassador Robert Dieter whose term ended with the change of administration in Washington. And while the arrival of the new ambassador is highly anticipated, U.S. Charge d’Affairs, Jack Diffily, says that there is a vetting process that Vinai will need to go through, including senate approval. This means that it will be some time before the US top envoy lands in Belize on official mission.

Jack Diffily, U.S. Charge d’Affairs
“He’s been announced by the White House and he has a quite a long process to go through. The White House announces him but then he has to questioning in the U.S. senate and the senate has to approve his nomination and then he has a number of administrative things—some briefings and things he has to take to get familiar with Belizean issues and the process normally takes from two to three months. So that’s just a very rough guess. In truth I will see him when he arrives at the Philip Goldson.”

Duane Moody
“You’re the one that’s taking up the slack since the ambassador is not here. How has that been for you?”

Jack Diffily
“What its enable me to do is to meet a quite wide sector of society here and to me I really enjoy representing my country in a position that is so visible. So when the ambassador comes I’ll move back into the embassy but I’ve enjoyed it.’

If Vinai get the thumbs up from the senate he will be the first Indian-American Ambassador in U.S. history.