US officially has an ambassador to the UAE for first time since 2021

The US has an ambassador to the UAE for the first time since 2021 after Martina Strong took the oath of office this week, the State Department announced on Friday.

Strong, in the presence of Acting Deputy Secretary of State Tori Nuland, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf and other colleagues, was sworn in almost a year after President Joe Biden tapped her to fill the role.

“Our strong cooperation reflects the close alignment of our countries’ core priorities that underpin our shared security and prosperity,” Strong said.

Strong is a career diplomat and served as the chargé d’affaires, ad interim of the US Embassy in Saudi Arabia.

She will succeed John Rakolta, who former President Donald Trump appointed.

She has previously served at US embassies in Bulgaria, Iraq, the Czech Republic and Barbados, and speaks Arabic, Czech, Polish, French, German, Russian, and Bosnian.

“From her childhood in communist Czechoslovakia, to a new life at age 14 in Fort Worth, Texas, to representing our nation as an Ambassador, Martina embodies the American Dream and will do a superb job in the UAE,” Nuland said in a post on X.