NEW YORK: The manner of recall of US ambassadors who were politically appointed by outgoing President Barack Obama, has generated some unease and murmurs of discontent in US diplomatic circles.
The Obama administration will, officially, be functioning until Jan 19.
The administration of President Donald Trump takes over on January 20 with his inauguration.
The revelation that Trump’s transition staff had issued a general order, in the form of a “diplomatic cable” from the Department of State, is causing anger in some circles.
The cable orders all political appointees to relinquish their overseas posts before Jan 20.
Unlike the past practice, the order does not allow even the shortest extension of the appointments of such envoys and ignores the hardship it may cause to them or their families by such abrupt recall from their posts.
Under normal circumstances, they would normally be allowed to slightly extend their stay – this is also common in the foreign service of many other countries – to enable the envoy’s children to complete a school term or if there are any health issues affecting the incumbent or any of the family members.
US media, including mainstream papers such as The New York Times, The Washington Post and others have been reporting this extensively.
A senior unnamed member of Trump’s transition team was quoted in The New York Times as saying that there was no ill will in the move, calling it a normal move to ensure that the envoys, appointed by the previous administration, leave the government on schedule, just as thousands of political aides at the White House and in federal agencies were required to do.
However, the unpleasant element in this order is that none of the envoys will be given any extension, contrary to past practice which took into consideration humanitarian or compassionate factors.
The accepted norm is that very few, if any, political appointee ambassadors seek extensions, and usually only for a brief period of time.
Responding to questions, the State Department’s spokesman John Kirby described the recall of political appointees as a “common, typical practice”.
But, he also pointed out, that career ambassadors – some 70 percent of US envoys abroad – had not been asked to resign.
“When you are a political appointee for this or any other administration, you have no expectation of staying beyond the inauguration of the new administration,” Kirby said.
Ronald Neumann, who heads the American Academy of Diplomacy, has been telling the media that politically appointed ambassadors were being recalled because they were “representatives of the outgoing administration” of President Obama.
But recalling ambassadors, particularly in countries that are considered allies or strategically important to the US could also create problems.
This would apply, particularly, to countries such as Germany, Canada, Britain, India, to name a few countries which have political appointees.
By the time new ambassadors are appointed – the incumbents need to be confirmed first by the senate – it would take time, even stretching to months where a candidate’s suitability is questioned during the senate-confirmation process.
Indeed, many of the political appointees, according to US media reports, are now considering making representation to the Secretary of State nominee, Rex Tillerson, to allow them time.
The US envoy to India, Richard Verma, the first Indian American to be named envoy to India, was appointed by Obama for the job in November 2014 and arrived in India shortly before the US president’s visit the following year.
There is also some disquiet among the powerful Indian diaspora in the US which feels that the changing of political appointees was done with little or no finesse.
“Conventionally, ambassadors are allowed to stay on till replacements are found.
Usually, existing envoys carry on till the Senate confirmation of the appointments takes place,” Dr Subash Jha, a US based analyst of Indian origin, told Bernama.
US based sources say that Verma is likely to pay a courtesy call on Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi before returning home.
Verma may stay on in India for some time in a private capacity until his children’s school term is completed. – Bernama