President Biden selects Indian-American as Ambassador to Morocco

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The White House announced March 18, 2022, that President Biden has selected Puneet Talwar as Ambassador to Morocco. Talwar will have to be cleared in U.S. Senate hearings before taking on the post. Talwar’s nomination comes soon after President Biden announced the nomination of Californian Democratic activist and fundraiser Shefali Razdan Duggal as ambassador to the Netherlands.

Talwar has held senior national security and foreign policy positions in the State Department, White House, and United States Senate.

He is currently a Senior Advisor at the State Department.

Previously, he has served as the Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs, Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director at the National Security Council, and as a Senior Professional Staff Member at the Committee on Foreign Relations in the United States Senate.

Talwar’s public service also includes key roles in the U.S. House of Representatives and the State Department’s Policy Planning Staff.

Outside of government, he has been a Senior Fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute, a Visiting Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania Penn Biden Center, a Counselor to the conflict resolution NGO Inter Mediate, and a non-resident Scholar at Georgetown University’s Center for Security Studies.

As Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, Talwar managed several critical components of U.S. foreign policy, including the maintenance of the State Department’s global security relationships, the provision of international security assistance, the negotiation of international security agreements, and the implementation of the President’s Export Control Reform Initiative.

From 2009-2014, Talwar served as the Special Assistant to President Obama and Senior Director for Iraq, Iran, and the Gulf States at the White House National Security Council.

Talwar’s association with Biden goes back to the 1990s. From 1995-1999 and 2001-2008, he was the Chief Middle East Advisor to Biden on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He also served on the State Department’s Policy Planning Staff from 1999-2001, and was a foreign policy advisor in the House of Representatives.

Talwar earned his B.S. Degree in Engineering from Cornell University and his M.A. in International Affairs from Columbia University. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a native of Washington, DC.