Ambassador of the United States to Guinea-Bissau | |
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Nominator | The President of the United States |
Appointer | The President with Senate advice and consent |
Inaugural holder | Dean Curran as Chargé d'Affaires ad interim |
Formation | June 30, 1976 |
Website | U.S. Embassy - Dakar |
The United States ambassador to Guinea-Bissau is the official representative of the president of the United States to the head of state of Guinea-Bissau. The U.S. ambassador to Senegal is concurrently commissioned to Senegal and Guinea-Bissau.
Until 1974, Guinea-Bissau had been a colony of the Portuguese Empire as Portuguese Guinea. After a period of revolutionary warfare, Guinea-Bissau unilaterally declared its independence on September 24, 1973. Following the April 1974 Carnation Revolution in Portugal, it granted independence to Guinea-Bissau on September 10, 1974. The United States recognized the Republic of Guinea-Bissau on the same day. The U.S. Embassy Bissau was established on June 30, 1976, with Dean Curran as Chargé d'Affaires ad interim. [1]
The first three ambassadors to Guinea-Bissau were concurrently commissioned to Cape Verde while resident in Bissau. From 1983 until 1998, U.S. ambassadors were solely commissioned to Guinea-Bissau. [2] In 1998 the U.S. embassy in Bissau was closed, [3] and there has been no U.S. embassy in Bissau since then. Since 2002, the U.S. ambassador to Senegal has also been commissioned as the ambassador to Guinea-Bissau, while resident in Dakar.
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 | |
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Melissa F. Wells [4] - Career FSO | Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary | September 16, 1976 | November 29, 1976 | March 29, 1977 | |
Edward Marks [4] - Career FSO | September 16, 1977 | October 31, 1977 | July 11, 1980 | ||
Peter Jon de Vos [4] - Career FSO | August 27, 1980 | September 22, 1980 | March 30, 1983 | ||
Wesley Egan - Career FSO | March 18, 1983 | May 12, 1983 | January 7, 1985 | ||
Barbara C. Maslak | Chargé d'Affaires ad interim | January 1985 | Unknown | August 1986 | |
John Dale Blacken - Career FSO | Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary | June 16, 1986 | August 27, 1986 | September 29, 1989 | |
William Ludwig Jacobsen - Career FSO | October 10, 1989 | November 13, 1989 | August 25, 1992 | ||
Roger A. McGuire - Career FSO | June 15, 1992 | October 14, 1992 | August 28, 1995 | ||
Peggy Blackford - Career FSO | October 3, 1995 | November 4, 1995 | June 14, 1998 | ||
Embassy suspended operations from 1998 to 2002. | |||||
Richard Allan Roth [5] - Career FSO | Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary | November 15, 2002 | February 13, 2004 | Left Dakar, August 4, 2005 | |
Janice L. Jacobs [5] - Career FSO | February 21, 2006 | May 9, 2006 | Left Dakar, July 15, 2007. | ||
Marcia Bernicat [5] - Career FSO | June 16, 2008 | November 6, 2008 | July 15, 2011 | ||
Robert T. Yamate | Chargé d'Affaires ad interim | July 15, 2011 | Unknown | August 2011 | |
Lewis A. Lukens [5] – Career FSO | Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary | July 11, 2011 | October 19, 2011 | June 4, 2014 | |
James P. Zumwalt – Career FSO | February 3, 2015 | March 10, 2015 | January 19, 2017 | ||
Tulinabo S. Mushingi – Career FSO | May 19, 2017 | August 4, 2017 | February 1, 2022 | ||
Michael A. Raynor – Career FSO | December 18, 2021 | April 20, 2022 | Incumbent |
The foreign relations of Guinea, including those with its West African neighbors, have improved steadily since 1985.
The Republic of Guinea-Bissau follows a nonaligned foreign policy and seeks friendly and cooperative relations with a wide variety of states and organizations. France, Portugal, Angola, Brazil, Egypt, Nigeria, Libya, Cuba, the Palestine Liberation Organization, Ghana, and Russia have diplomatic offices in Bissau.
Guinea-Bissau–United States relations are bilateral relations between Guinea-Bissau and the United States.
James Peter Zumwalt is an American diplomat with expertise in trade, economy, and East Asia. On November 19, 2014, he was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the U.S. Ambassador to Senegal and to Guinea-Bissau. Previously, he worked as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, covering Japan and Korea. Until December 2011, he was the Deputy Chief of Mission of the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo where he also served as chargé d'affaires ad interim during the absence of an Ambassador from January to August 2009. He coordinated the U.S. Embassy's response to the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.
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.
Cape Verde–Guinea Bissau relations refers to the bilateral relationship between the Republic of Cape Verde and the Republic of Guinea-Bissau. Cape Verde is an island country about 900 km north-west of Guinea-Bissau, a coastal West African country. Both were colonies of the Portuguese Empire and they campaigned together for independence with a plan for unification, but the countries separated after 1980.