US President Donald Trump has nominated Natalie Baker, the current charge d’affaires at the US embassy in Islamabad, to be the ambassador to Pakistan, according to a statement by the White House.

The nomination has been submitted to the US Senate, whose foreign relations committee will review it. If approved by the committee, the nomination will proceed to a vote by the full Senate.

Baker would be appointed as the US ambassador to Pakistan following the Senate’s confirmation.

Baker assumed the role of charge d’affaires at the US embassy in Islamabad in January 2025, following the departure of then-ambassador Donald Armin Blome.

She arrived in Islamabad as deputy chief of mission in August 2024, according to details available on the embassy’s website. Prior to that, she served as the deputy chief of mission at the US embassy in Doha from Aug 2021 to July 2024.

Baker was also deployed as the deputy chief of mission and charge d’affaires of the US Mission to Libya, deputy director of the Iran Regional Presence Office at the US consulate in Dubai and economic counsellor at the US embassy in Kuwait. She also served as the director of the Office of North African Affairs in the US State Department’s Near Eastern Affairs Bureau.

“From 2009-2011, Natalie served as the political and cconomic counsellor in Libya, as the bilateral relationship was normalising after a nearly 30-year pause.  She remained in Libya until the Libyan Revolution forced the embassy to evacuate in February 2011,” the website says.