NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 23 – The US Senate confirmed President Biden’s appointee Linda Thomas-Greenfield as the next United States ambassador to the United Nations. Ms. Thomas-Greenfield’s confirmation, by a vote of 78 to 20, comes as the Biden’s administration seeks to become a more active force in the United Nations after the American retreat during the Trump administration.
The Italian Mission to the UN sent its warmest congratulation to the new US Permanent Representative: “We look forward to working hand in hand to tackle crucial challenges, from global health to climate action, championing together the values of multilateralism with the United Nations at its core”, the mission said on Twitter.
The new Ambassador comes from Louisiana where she attended segregated schools, and is a veteran diplomat, having joined the State Department in 1982. From 2008 to 2012, she served as ambassador to Liberia, before becoming the director general of the foreign service for about a year. From 2013 to 2017, she served as the top United States diplomat for African affairs, where she helped oversee the response to the Ebola epidemic. In 2017, she was among the diplomats pushed out of the department by Rex W. Tillerson, the first Secretary of State of the Trump administration.
Serving as a diplomat in the Foreign Service, I rarely had all the ingredients to make the perfect gumbo.
But across four continents, my goal was always the same: bring people together and connect by breaking down barriers and finding common ground.https://t.co/XXLdSjkpAU
— Linda Thomas-Greenfield (@LindaT_G) January 9, 2021
Her pinned Tweet is a manifesto of what she calls the “Gumbo Diplomacy”, referring to the Cajun dish she often prepared alongside her foreign counterparts to break down barriers during diplomatic conversations: “Serving as a diplomat in the Foreign Service, I rarely had all the ingredients to make the perfect gumbo. But across four continents, my goal was always the same: bring people together and connect by breaking down barriers and finding common ground”. (@OnuItalia)
