MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The United States is planning to replace its ambassador to Moscow. On July 21, US President Donald Trump sent the nomination of former Utah state governor Jon Huntsman for the Senate's approval. The Russian Foreign Ministry has already given preliminary agreement for Huntsman's work in Moscow.
"We leave our assignment here in the next week or so," Tefft said in an interview released on the US Embassy's Twitter account.
The diplomat admitted that his work in Russia "was not that easy, but has brought us many rewards and many good relationships."
"One of the things that we will miss will be many-many connections we had with the Russian people all over this country. That will be in many ways our greatest memory of these years here," Tefft said.
Huntsman has served in every US presidential administration since Ronald Reagan in the early 1980s and was CEO of his family-owned Huntsman Corporation.
Huntsman served as a White House staff assistant for Reagan then became Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce and US Ambassador to Singapore under Reagan's Republican successor President George H.W. Bush.
Huntsman's record included negotiating China's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001 and serving as President Barack Obama's ambassador to Beijing.
