Bush nominates Negroponte for U.N. envoy post

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON, MARCH 7. The U.S. President, Mr. George W Bush, has announced his intent to nominate Mr. John Negroponte as Ambassador to the United Nations. The veteran career diplomat who has seen tours of duty in Mexico, Honduras and the Philippines will not have Cabinet rank.

``John Negroponte will be a key member of my administration's foreign policy team as he pursues our vision of a United Nations capable of meeting the global challenges of the 21st century while serving the interests of its member states. He will work closely with Congress to build a strong U.S.-U.N. relationship,'' Mr. Bush has said in a statement.

The nomination will have to go through the Senate confirmation process but Mr. Negroponte is expected to have little to no difficulty. He is seen as a thoughtful person on foreign affairs with a 37 year career that ended in 1997 upon which he became the Executive Vice-President for global markets for the McGraw Hill publishing companies. Besides his high profile diplomatic assignments, he also had a stint at the Paris Peace Talks that ended the Vietnam War. He had served under Gen. Colin Powell between 1987 and 1989 at the National Security Council.

In the nomination of Mr. Negroponte, Mr. Bush appears to have gone along with his Secretary of State's thinking on at least two aspects. First Gen. Powell favours as many career foreign service officers to serve in key positions as possible. Secondly, he has been opposed to the idea of the U.N. Ambassador having a Cabinet rank.

As many as 14 out of 24 American Ambassadors to the U.N. have had Cabinet positions. The Clinton administration appointees to the top U.N. post had Cabinet ranks. But Gen. Powell was keen on bringing the functioning of the U.N. office clearly within the scope of the State Department to have an overall perspective on foreign policy. It is said that at least two other potential nominees, Ms. Elizabeth Dole and the former Democratic Congressman, Mr. Lee Hamilton, declined the post because it did not bring with it Cabinet status.

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Section  : International
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