US President Donald Trump has nominated Natalie Baker, the current charge d’affaires at the US Embassy in Islamabad, to serve as the next US ambassador to Pakistan, according to a White House statement.
The nomination has been submitted to the US Senate for consideration. It will first be reviewed by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and, if approved, will proceed to a vote by the full Senate.
Baker will formally become US ambassador to Pakistan if her nomination is confirmed by the Senate.
She assumed the role of charge d’affaires at the US Embassy in Islamabad in January 2025, following the departure of then-US ambassador Donald Armin Blome. She had arrived in Pakistan in August 2024 to serve as deputy chief of mission, according to the US Embassy's website.
Before her posting in Islamabad, Baker served as deputy chief of mission at the US Embassy in Doha from August 2021 to July 2024.
Her diplomatic career has also included assignments as deputy chief of mission and charge d’affaires at the US Mission to Libya, deputy director of the Iran Regional Presence Office at the US Consulate in Dubai, and economic counsellor at the US Embassy in Kuwait.
She also served as director of the Office of North African Affairs at the US State Department's Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs.
According to her official biography, Baker served as political and economic counsellor in Libya from 2009 to 2011, during the normalisation of bilateral relations after a nearly 30-year suspension. She remained in the country until the Libyan Revolution forced the US Embassy to evacuate in February 2011.
