US President Donald Trump has picked diplomat Natalie A Baker as his next ambassador to Pakistan, the White House announced. Her appointment now depends on approval from the Senate, to which the administration has forwarded her nomination.
Baker is presently serving as the permanent Chargé d’Affaires in Pakistan. She first took on the role on an interim basis at the embassy in January 2025 and received the permanent position last month. The nomination comes as Washington and Islamabad continue diplomatic engagement on trade, investment, security and regional issues. Donald Blome was the previous US ambassador and left the post in January 2025.
Earlier postings in the Gulf and North Africa
Before coming to Islamabad, Baker was Deputy Chief of Mission at the US embassy in Doha, Qatar, from August 2021 to July 2024. Before that, she led the Office of North African Affairs within the State Department’s Near Eastern Affairs Bureau. Her earlier roles included Deputy Chief of Mission and Chargé d’Affaires at the US Mission to Libya, along with posts in Dubai and Kuwait.
From 2009 to 2011, she served as Political and Economic Counsellor in Libya during the normalisation of bilateral relations. She stayed until the 2011 Libyan Revolution forced the embassy to evacuate. Her other assignments included Special Assistant in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, Consular Officer in Islamabad and Cultural Affairs Officer in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan.
Academic credentials and language skills
Baker holds a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and a master’s in public policy from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. In 2017, she was named a Distinguished Graduate of the National War College at the National Defence University. She speaks Arabic, Spanish, Farsi and Russian.
