"Today, President Donald J. Trump announced his intent to nominate the following individuals to key positions in his Administration: Julie D. Fisher, of Tennessee, to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Republic of Belarus," the release said.
Fisher is currently serves as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Western Europe and the European Union in the State Department’s Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs.
"She also served on special assignment as Chargé d’Affaires a.i. [ad interim] of the US Embassy in Russia," the release said, adding that Fisher worked in the past at the US mission to NATO and the US embassies in Ukraine and Georgia.
Fisher will be the first US Ambassador sent to Belarus since 2008, when relations between two countries severely deteriorated.
The United States has since imposed numerous sanctions against Belarus since, but bilateral relations began to improve in recent months.
Last September, US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs David Hale visited Minsk and announced that the United States and Belarus were preparing for the mutual return of ambassadors. Currently, the embassies in both countries are headed by charges d'affaires ad interim.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in Minsk in February where they discussed matters of mutual interest as well as improving bilateral relations.
