Marc Knapper, the new US ambassador to Vietnam, arrived in Hanoi on January 27 as he and his family are now in quarantine, the official Facebook page of the US Embassy in Hanoi reports.
“My family and I arrived safely last night and are now in quarantine. We can’t wait to meet our Vietnamese friends and partners soon!” said the American diplomat.
The US Senate approved a series of nominations from President Joe Biden for overseas diplomatic posts on December 18, 2021, including Marc Knapper, who was named as the US Ambassador to Vietnam.
Marc Knapper, a member of the United States Department of State’s Senior Foreign Service, has served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Republic of Korea and Japan since August 2018.
Marc Knapper was sworn in as the new US ambassador to Vietnam on January 4 at a ceremony at the headquarters of the US Department of State.
Before taking up the position, he served in Seoul as Chargé d’affaires from 2017 to 2018 and Deputy Head of Mission from 2015 to 2016. Previous assignments have included Director of India Affairs, Director of Japanese Affairs and multiple posts in Tokyo, Seoul, Hanoi and Baghdad.
The diplomat has served twice in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, including in 1997 as a representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the Spent Fuel team at the Yongbyon nuclear power plant and in 2000 as a member of the advanced team for the visit of then Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to Pyongyang.
Ambassador Handsome is a recipient of the Secretary of State’s Distinguished Service Award, the nation’s highest diplomatic award. In addition, he has also received a Presidential Meritorious Service Award and the Department of State’s Linguist of the Year Award. He graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University and attended the University of Tokyo as part of Middlebury College’s intensive Japanese program.
This coincides with time at the Army War College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Seminar XXI program, with Ambassador Knapper speaking Korean, Japanese, and Vietnamese.
Source: US Embassy
