Acting EUR A/S Philip Reeker to Serve as Chargé d’Affaires at US Embassy London

July 16, 2021 By in Blinken, chargé d’affaires, EUR|Europe, Foreign Service, FSOs, Obama, State Department, Trends, U.S. Missions Tags: , , , , ,
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On July 15, the State Department announced the appointment of the Acting Assistant Secretary for EUR Philip Reeker as Chargé d’Affaires, ad interim at the US Embassy in London.

Ambassador Philip T. Reeker will serve as Chargé d’Affaires, ad interim, at the Embassy of the United States of America to the Court of St. James’s, as of August 1, 2021. A career diplomat with the rank of Minister Counselor, Ambassador Reeker is currently the Acting Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs. Prior to leading the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, Ambassador Reeker was Civilian Deputy and Policy Advisor to the Commander of U.S. European Command in Stuttgart, Germany, and from 2008-2011 he was the U.S. Ambassador to North Macedonia.

The United States has no closer Ally than the United Kingdom, and Ambassador Reeker is dedicated to continuing to advance this special relationship.

Ambassador Reeker has served as Acting A/S for EUR since March 2019.With him off to London, who will mind the EUR shop? Biden’s nominee for EUR Karen Erika Donfried was announced in spring; her nomination received by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on April 29, 2021. She is scheduled to have her confirmation hearing on July 20. Calculation must be that Dr. Donfried will get confirmed before the Senate’s August recess.
The current CDA for Embassy London Yael Lempert became Chargé d’Affaires, a.i. in January 2021 when Woody Johnson left post. Lempert previously took up her assignment as Deputy Chief of Mission in London in January 2019.  These are typically three year assignments, so her successor as DCM would not have been expected to arrived in London before January 2022.  Lempert is reportedly leaving post in two weeks.  She previously worked at the National Security Council during President Obama’s second term. She has also been the subject of attacks in the media for that tenure.
During Secretary Blinken’s May visit in London, he said, “…I’m particularly grateful to Yael Lempert for her extraordinary leadership of this mission. We’ve been colleagues for a long time. I’m grateful to have you here at this time.”

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