Biden inducts second Pakistani American into his foreign policy team

WASHINGTON: US President-elect Joe Biden has inducted a second Pakistani American, Salman Ahmed, into his foreign policy team.

State Department in a statement said, “Mr. Ahmed, who served as head of strategic planning in the Obama National Security Council, is joining the US State Department as director policy planning”.

Salman Ahmed was chief of staff of the US Mission to the United Nations and senior policy adviser to the US Permanent Representative to the United Nations.

Earlier, Ahmed served as a visiting professor and research scholar at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and worked for almost fifteen years at the United Nations, including posts as chief of staff for the Head of UN Peacekeeping Operations in 2009.

Biden had announced last month that another Pakistani American, Ali Zaidi, will join his team as Deputy National Climate Adviser.

Biden had also inducted two women from the Indian-occupied Kashmir into his team. Sameera Fazili, an American of Kashmiri origin, has been appointed the deputy director of the National Economic Council (NEC).

Another Kashmir-born woman, Aisha Shah, was inducted into Biden’s team as partnership manager of the White House Digital Strategy team in December 2020. Uzra Zeya, another Indian Muslim, has been appointed Undersecretary of State for arms control, democracy and human rights.