Stephens is a former Ambassador to South Korea.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: The Department of State has announced that Kathleen Stephens will be the new interim US Ambassador to India.
Stephens’ ascension to the position was announced by the State Department on Wednesday, which said that Stephens will fill the role in the wake of outgoing Ambassador Nancy Powell’s retirement. The search for a permanent Ambassador is still ongoing.
“Ambassador Kathleen Stephens will serve as the charge until a new permanent ambassador is nominated and confirmed by the Senate,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said. “She will arrive in [New] Delhi in early June.”
Stephens is a storied veteran of the US diplomatic corps, with a 37-year career to her name. She holds a B.A. in East Asian studies from Prescott College in Arizona, and a post-graduate degree from Harvard University; she also studied at Oxford University, in the UK, for some time.
She worked in the Peace Corps for a number of years, and joined the US Foreign Service in 1978. Stephens was part of missions in China, Trinidad and Tobago, South Korea, Belgrade, and various places throughout Europe into the 1990s.
From 1994-1995, she was the Director for European Affairs in the United States National Security Council, and was the Director of the Office of Ecology and Terrestrial Conservation in the State Department from 2001-2003. In 2008, she became Ambassador to South Korea, a position she held until 2011.
The US has not yet indicated who will become the permanent new Ambassador to India, but whispers have swirled for weeks that the State Department is heavily leaning towards Rajiv Shah, head of the USAID, to take the post. An Indian American whose parents are from the state of Gujarat, Shah is seen as someone who could go a long way to forging ties with new Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who had an infamously frosty relationship with Nancy Powell.
Powell announced her retirement in May; although government officials say it was planned all along, many suspect she was forced out because the US wants to repair ties with India. During her tenure with the State Department, Powell served as the US Ambassador to countries like Uganda, Ghana, Pakistan, and Nepal, and as part of the diplomatic envoy to Canada, Togo, and Bangladesh.