Biden to nominate Indian-American Gautam Rana as Slovakian ambassador

US President Joe Biden is set to nominate Indian-American career diplomat Gautam Rana as the new US Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Slovakia.

In a statement on Wednesday, the White House announced the president's intent to send Rana's nomination for further ratification.

A career member of the Senior Foreign Service, US - with rank of Counselor, Rana is currently Deputy Chief of Mission of the US Embassy in Algeria and was the Charg d'Affaires ad interim there from August 2020 to February 2022.

Earlier, Rana served as the Deputy Chief of Mission and Charg d'Affaires ad interim at the US Embassy in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Among other positions, Rana was Director for Afghanistan and Pakistan on the National Security Council staff and the Deputy Minister Counselor for Political Affairs at the US Embassy in New Delhi.

Rana also served as the Special Assistant to the Deputy Secretary of State, Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, and worked in Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the UAE, the White House release read.

Rana earned B.A and B.S degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, a J.D from the Vanderbilt University School of Law and an M.A degree from the National Defense University.

In addition to English, he speaks Hindi, Spanish, and Gujarati.