04 March 2024

U.S. Ambassador to Singapore Jonathan Kaplan...US says it takes seriously OIG report

Jonathan Kaplan, a major Dem donor, had no gov't experience before Biden tapped him as US Ambassador to Singapore.
The findings will draw fresh scrutiny to successive presidents’ longtime practice of distributing ambassador jobs to campaign donors and political allies who have no diplomatic experience. 
  • The ambassador job was vacant for five years before Kaplan was confirmed in November 2021, after former President Donald Trump’s first nominee, KT McFarland, withdrew from consideration and the Senate declined to take up his second.
(Bloomberg) — President Joe Biden’s ambassador to Singapore threatened staff, wasted money and poorly promoted US interests, according to an internal watchdog report released Friday.

Biden Taps Kaplan for Long-Vacant Singapore Envoy Post

  • The tech entrepreneur ventured into grilled cheese restaurants
RELATED

Singapore’s minister Shanmugam defends ‘helpful’ US envoy Jonathan Kaplan after scathing watchdog report

  • K Shanmugam’s comment comes after a US watchdog report noted Kaplan’s shortcomings including his ‘poor relationships with some ministries’
  • The minister says he has always found Kaplan to be ‘proactive’ and that the US envoy is committed to maintaining strong Singapore-US ties
Kimberly Lim
Kimberly Lim
South China Morning Post
Singapore’s Shanmugam defends US envoy Jonathan Kaplan after scathing report
Shanmugam's comment comes after a US watchdog report noted Kaplan's shortcomings including his “poor relationships with some ministries”
Singapore’s Minister of Law and Home Affairs K Shanmugam has come out to defend Jonathan Kaplan, the American envoy to the city state, as someone who has “tried to ensure that the relationship between the two countries continues to be strong” after a US internal watchdog published a scathing report on the diplomat.

“Based on my dealings with him, I have found that he, like several of his predecessors, has tried to ensure that the relationship between the two countries continues to be strong,” Shanmugam wrote in a Facebook post on Monday, after the report was published on March 1.


.
47 mins ago
================================================================
Jonathan E. Kaplan's voice
Duration: 4 minutes and 56 seconds.
Kaplan's opening statement at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to be United States ambassador to Singapore
Recorded October 20, 2021


at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)