Nomination process began last September.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: The US Senate has confirmed Puneet Talwar as the new Assistant Secretary of State for Political Military Affairs, a high-ranking position that puts Talwar among the leading foreign policy experts within President Barack Obama’s inner circle.
Talwar was confirmed with a voice vote in the Senate on Thursday, making his confirmation official after a long nomination process that began last September, when Obama originally named him as his top choice for the position. He is now the second Indian American to fill an Assistant Secretary of State posting within the US government – Nisha Desai Biswal was sworn in last November as the Assistant Secretary of State for Central and South Asia.
Since 2009, Talwar has been a Special Assistant to President Obama. He has been part of the Obama administration for the past four years as a top policy advisor for the Middle East region. In his testimony before the US Senate on December 11, Talwar said that he was “grateful for the confidence that President Obama and Secretary Kerry have shown in nominating me for this position.”
“The security of the United States is affected by more countries and more regions than ever before,” Talwar said. “The task of maintaining global security and addressing global challenges must be shared. It is therefore more vital than ever that our friends and partners have the capabilities to address common security challenges.”
Talwar explained that, if confirmed, his main priority would be to reinforce Political Military Affairs (or PM, as it is called by Washington insiders) ties with industry. He also discussed, among other things: negotiating security agreements for US soldiers around the world, playing a bigger part in fighting piracy on the Indian Ocean, bolstering the military power of close foreign partners (presumably including India), supporting Israel’s security and “military edge” in the Middle East, and “deepening security cooperation with India and building on our Defense Trade and Technology Initiative.”
Talwar graduated from Cornell University before earning his master’s degree at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. From 1990 to 1992, he was an official with the United Nations. He then became a foreign policy advisor to Rep. Thomas C. Sawyer (D-OH) until 1995. From 1997-1999, he was the chief Middle East foreign policy advisor to Senator Joe Biden (D-DE), From 2001-2009, he was a Senior Professional Staff Member on the Senate’s Committee on Foreign Relations.
Talwar is married and has two sons, Haris and Ilyas.