Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs

Last updated
United States
Assistant Secretary of State
for South and Central Asian Affairs
U.S. Department of State official seal.svg
Seal of the United States Department of State
Flag of the United States Assistant Secretary of State.svg
Flag of an assistant secretary of state
Incumbent
Bethany Poulos Morrison
Acting  
since August 20, 2025
Reports to Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs
Nominator President of the United States
Inaugural holder Edward Djerejian
Formation1992
Website Official Website

The assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian affairs is the head of the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs within the United States Department of State, which handles U.S. foreign policy and relations in the following countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.

Contents

The position of Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs was renamed when responsibility for policy for five countries (Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan) was transferred from the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs to the Bureau of South Asian Affairs, which became the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs.

List of assistant secretaries of state for South Asian affairs

#NameAssumed officeLeft office President served under
- Edward P. Djerejian [1] August 24, 1992May 30, 1993 [2] George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton
-James P. Covey [3]
1 Robin Raphel August 6, 1993June 27, 1997 Bill Clinton
2 Karl Inderfurth August 4, 1997January 19, 2001
3 Christina B. Rocca June 1, 2001February 17, 2006 George W. Bush
4 Richard Boucher February 21, 2006January 20, 2009
5 Robert O. Blake, Jr. May 26, 2009October 20, 2013 Barack Obama
6 Nisha Desai Biswal October 21, 2013January 20, 2017
- William E. Todd (Acting)January 20, 2017June 12, 2017 Donald Trump
- Alice G. Wells (Acting)June 26, 2017June 20, 2020
- Dean R. Thompson (Acting)January 20, 2021September 15, 2021 Joe Biden
7 Donald Lu September 15, 2021January 20, 2025
-Eric Meyer (Acting)January 20, 2025August 19, 2025 Donald Trump
-Bethany Poulos Morrison (Acting)August 20, 2025Present

References

  1. ↑ Edward P. Djerejian held the title of "Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs" from September 30, 1991. On August 24, 1992, he became Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs and Acting Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs. He was never formally Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs.
  2. ↑ "Edward Peter Djerejian - People - Department History - Office of the Historian".
  3. ↑ The Senate did not act upon Covey's nomination and he never became Assistant Secretary.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.