Ambassador of the United States to Belarus | |
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Пасол Злучаных Штатаў у Беларусі | |
![]() Seal of the United States Department of State | |
Nominator | The President of the United States |
Appointer | The President with Senate advice and consent |
Inaugural holder | David Heywood Swartz as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary |
Formation | August 11, 1992 |
Website | by |
The United States ambassador to Belarus is the official representative of the president of the United States to the head of state of Belarus.
Until 1991, the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic had been a constituent republic of the Soviet Union. During the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Supreme Soviet of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic declared independence on August 25, 1991, and renamed itself the Republic of Belarus on September 19, 1991. The United States recognized Belarus on December 26, 1991. An embassy was established in the capital, Minsk, on January 31, 1992, with John Ford as Chargé d’Affaires ad interim. Relations between the United States and Belarus have been continuous since that time.
The U.S. Embassy in Belarus is located in Minsk. Since March 12, 2008, when Ambassador Karen Stewart was formally recalled for consultations, there has been no accredited U.S. Ambassador in Minsk. All but five U.S. diplomats were declared persona non grata on April 30, 2008.
U.S. diplomatic terms |
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Career FSO After 1915, The United States Department of State began classifying ambassadors as career Foreign Service Officers (FSOs) for those who have served in the Foreign Service for a specified amount of time. Political appointee A person who is not a career foreign service officer, but is appointed by the president (often as a reward to political friends). Appointed The date that the ambassador took the oath of office; also known as "commissioning". It follows confirmation of a presidential appointment by the Senate, or a Congressional recess appointment by the president. In the case of a recess appointment, the ambassador requires subsequent confirmation by the Senate to remain in office. Presented credentials The date that the ambassador presented his letter of credence to the head of state or appropriate authority of the receiving nation. At this time the ambassador officially becomes the representative of his country. This would normally occur a short time after the ambassador's arrival on station. The host nation may reject the ambassador by not receiving the ambassador's letter, but this occurs only rarely. Terminated mission Usually the date that the ambassador left the country. In some cases a letter of recall is presented, ending the ambassador's commission, either as a means of diplomatic protest or because the diplomat is being reassigned elsewhere and replaced by another envoy. Chargé d'affaires The person in charge of the business of the embassy when there is no ambassador commissioned to the host country. Ad interim Latin phrase meaning "for the time being", "in the meantime". |
Name | Title | Appointed | Presented credentials | Terminated mission | Notes |
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David Heywood Swartz – Career FSO | Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary | August 11, 1992 | September 9, 1992 | January 21, 1994 | |
Kenneth Spencer Yalowitz – Career FSO | September 29, 1994 | November 7, 1994 | July 8, 1997 | ||
Daniel V. Speckhard – Career FSO [1] | August 1, 1997 | September 18, 1997 | August 5, 2000 | ||
Michael G. Kozak – Career Civil Service (non-FSO) | September 15, 2000 | February 22, 2001 | August 8, 2003 | ||
George A. Krol – Career FSO | July 1, 2003 | October 22, 2003 | July 24, 2006 | ||
Karen B. Stewart – Career FSO | August 14, 2006 | October 24, 2006 | March 12, 2008 [2] [3] [4] | ||
Jonathan M. Moore – Career FSO | Chargé d'Affaires ad interim | March 12, 2008 | — [5] | July 7, 2009 | |
Michael Scanlan – Career FSO | July 7, 2009 | — | June 2013 | ||
Ethan A. Goldrich – Career FSO | June 2013 | — | June 30, 2014 | ||
Scott Rauland [6] | June 30, 2014 | — | July 8, 2016 [7] | ||
Robert J. Riley | August 22, 2016 [7] | — | July 17, 2018 [8] | ||
Jenifer H. Moore | August 17, 2018 [9] | — | July 27, 2020 | ||
Jeffrey Giauque [10] | July 27, 2020 | — | December 22, 2020 | ||
Julie D. Fisher – Career FSO | Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary | December 15, 2020 [11] | December 23, 2020 | June 9, 2022 | |
Ruben Harutunian | Chargé d'Affaires ad interim | June 9, 2022 | June 25, 2023 [12] | ||
Peter Kaufmann | Chargé d'Affaires ad interim | June 26, 2023 | Present |
The Byelorussian SSR was one of only two Soviet republics to be separate members of the United Nations. Both republics and the Soviet Union joined the UN when the organization was founded in 1945.
Interstate relations between the United States and Belarus began in 1991 upon the dissolution of the Soviet Union, of which Belarus had been a part. However, the relations have turned sour due to accusations by the United States that Belarus has been violating human rights. Belarus, in turn, has accused the United States of interfering in its internal affairs.
Richard Eugene Hoagland is a career ambassador in the United States Department of State. He was Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in State's Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs from 2013-2015. In the summer of 2016, based at the U.S. Embassy in Amman, Jordan, he was the senior U.S. liaison to the Russian Reconciliation Center at the Russian military base in Latakia, Syria. In 2017 he served as interim U.S. co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, the group appointed by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to coordinate international peace-making efforts on the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Belarus and Ukraine are both are full members of the Baku Initiative and Central European Initiative. In 2020, during the Belarusian protests against president Lukashenko, the relationship between Ukraine and Belarus began to deteriorate, after the Ukrainian government criticized Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko. In the waning days of 2021, the relationship between both countries rapidly deteriorated, culminating in a full-scale invasion on 24 February 2022. Belarus has allowed the stationing of Russian troops and equipment in its territory and its use as a springboard for offensives into northern Ukraine but has denied the presence of Belarusian troops in Ukraine. Even though part of the Russian invasion was launched from Belarus, Ukraine did not break off diplomatic relations with Belarus, but remain frozen.
This is a summary history of diplomatic relations of the United States listed by country. The history of diplomatic relations of the United States began with the appointment of Benjamin Franklin as U.S. Minister to France in 1778, even before the U.S. had won its independence from Great Britain in 1783.