What you should know about the future US ambassador to Ukraine
For over 1000 days or three years — it may seem strange, but that is how long there is no Ambassador of the United States of America to Ukraine. The US Diplomatic mission has been operating without a permanent head since Donald Trump recalled Marie Yovanovitch in April 2019.
However, everything will change soon, as, on April 27, President Joe Biden officially nominated diplomat Bridget Brink as Ambassador to Ukraine. The head of the White House is supported by a majority of Senate members, so its approval is a matter of time. Although Washington doesn't name the exact dates. We explain what is known about Brink.
She's well acquainted with our region and used to work in "flashpoints"
"Career diplomat" is how American journalists like to name Brink, as she spent 26 years in various positions in the State Department. And the diplomat simply has a knack for being in countries of interest in terms of international politics.
Thus, she got her first job at the US Embassy in Serbia. Brink worked there as a political adviser from 1997 to 1999, facing the effects of the war in Bosnia and the outbreak of the conflict in Kosovo.
The conflict in Kosovo escalated into a full-fledged Serb war with NATO, so diplomats were evacuated. "I started my career in the Balkans in the 1990s. The experience I gained there helped me see how quickly social order could fall, and this leads to war," Brink later told Slovak journalists.
After that, she was transferred to Cyprus; we should remind you that this part of the island is controlled by the unrecognized Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which is de facto backed by Turkey itself.
Bridget Brink spent another three years (2005-2008) in Tbilisi as a political and economic leader. There, she saw up close and supported the reforms implemented by Mikheil Saakashvili and Kakha Bendukidze.
By the way, the White House wanted to return Brink to Georgia in 2018, but in the ambassadorial chair. But according to Foreign Policy, the authorities of the Caucasian republic quite undiplomatically refused to accept her. Representatives of the Georgian Dream party, which ruled the country at the time, saw the woman as a supporter of Saakashvili, who was their main enemy. On the other hand, the State Department and the Georgian side denied everything.
So, after 2008, the diplomat moved to Washington to "staff" positions. First, to the US National Security Council (this required her knowledge of the Mediterranean and the Caucasus), and then to the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs of the State Department. During the break, she managed to work in the embassies of Georgia (again) and Uzbekistan.
But in 2019, Brink was very close to Ukraine: she became the US ambassador to Slovakia. So she saw our war from a neighboring country and possibly participated in a diplomatic combination when the White House handed over the Patriot anti-aircraft missile system to Bratislava to replace the Slovak S-300s that went to Ukraine. The western neighbors needed such an "exchange" because they gave us all their air defense systems.
Brink is a non-public person and cares about reforms
Although Bridget Brink has been in the diplomatic service for a long time, finding information about her in the news is not an easy task. Of course, it should be borne in mind that the ambassador's task is to represent the country and implement its strategy, and not to act on her own.
As befits a State Department employee, she can speak diplomatically and to "smooth things over." It can be viewed from an interview in Slovak Dennik with the headline "You are our important ally. We may disagree, but let it be based on facts." So Brink politely urged Bratislava not to deploy Chinese 5G networks, although the Donald Trump administration was openly hostile. Brink called Slovakia "impressive."
Second, Brink kept away from US domestic policy. In contrast, for example, to the US Ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland, who used his rank to extract compromising information on Joe Biden.
However, these are very relevant characteristics for the diplomat. As far as she did not get involved in political scandals, she did not make enemies in any of the parties, so she steadily moved her career up under the Republicans of Trump and Bush Jr., and under Democrats Obama and Biden. A good sign, because her predecessor Marie Yovanovitch paid for her career, as she did not like Donald Trump.
According to Radio Svoboda, Brink is in good relations with Victoria Nuland, whom the head of the State Department Antony Blinken has appointed as his deputy.
In addition, Ukraine is not a strange land to Bridget Brink; we remember that she was responsible for Europe in the State Department. In particular, she dealt with the Normandy format, where the United States "maneuvered" between support for our country and unwillingness to formally join the talks.
Welcome back to Minsk Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasia Bridget Brink! pic.twitter.com/gbmIvqerzk
— Robert Riley (@USABobRiley) October 18, 2016
And after Ukraine's victory in the war, the American representative will most likely focus her diplomatic efforts on advancing reforms in our country. For Brink, this topic was fundamental in 2017, so, for example, she will pay attention to the work of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), judicial reform, or clear "rules of the game" for the oligarchs. "Ukraine must speed up the fight against corruption. This will restore Ukrainians' trust in their government," the diplomat said at the time.
And her arrival is an important symbolic step
Although on the eve of the war Biden was regularly called on to eventually appoint an ambassador to Ukraine, their absence is compensated with a direct link between Volodymyr Zelensky and Joe Biden's team.
On Monday, Antony Blinken and US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin visited Kyiv. Negotiations on arms supplies and other assistance are also being held by government officials.
However, the arrival of Bridget Brink will further strengthen diplomatic contacts between Kyiv and Washington. Besides, it's a good sign from the Americans.
They appoint an ambassador and return those diplomats who left before the war to Ukraine, so the White House does not doubt that our country will survive the war and Kyiv will soon become a safe place.
