Biden ambassador nominees include envoys to Israel, Mexico

Geneva: President Joe Biden on Tuesday unveiled picks for nine ambassadorial postings, tapping career diplomats steeped in foreign policy experience — as well as political allies and aviation hero “Sully” Sullenberger.

The picks include former Interior Secretary Ken Salazar as ambassador to Mexico and former Deputy Secretary of State Tom Nides as ambassador to Israel.

Retired airline pilot C B “Sully” Sullenberger, most famous for negotiating the emergency landing of US Airways Flight 1549 on the Hudson River with no fatalities, has been named to serve as US representative on the Council of the International Civil Aviation



Organisation.

The announcement comes as Biden is on the tail end of an eight-day European trip that included stops in the United Kingdom for a meeting of the Group of Seven leaders and Belgium for a gathering of the 27 NATO countries and the US-EU summit.

The trip culminates in Geneva on Wednesday with a highly anticipated meeting with Russia’s Vladimir Putin, where the leaders are to discuss rising tensions between their countries. As a candidate, Biden declined to rule out appointing political donors to ambassadorships or other posts if he was elected. But he pledged that his nominees, regardless of their contributor status.