YEREVAN (Arka)— U.S. Ambassador to Armenia, Richard Mills, told journalists in Yerevan on Tuesday that he would continue his current tenure after the new U.S. president Donald Trump took office. In the run-up to his inauguration, President Trump’s team informed President Obama’s political appointees that their resignations would take effect on January 20.
All U.S. ambassadors serve at the pleasure of the President of the United States, so it is common practice for “political appointee” ambassadors, who are not career members of the U.S. Foreign Service (our professional diplomatic corps), to submit their resignations when the president who appointed them leaves office.
“Approximately 70% of U.S. ambassadors worldwide are not political appointees, but are instead career diplomats –including Ambassador Mills,” read a Facebook post by the U.S. Embassy in Yerevan.
“These U.S. career diplomats have not been asked to resign and therefore remain at their posts. Ambassador Mills is still hard at work in Yerevan, helping to advance U.S.-Armenia bilateral relations.”
