New York sources have reported that Manisha Singh, a lawyer and Congressional staffer, has won Senate approval to be the Assistant Secretary of State in charge of economic and business affairs, making her the second senior official of Indian descent in US diplomacy. Meanwhile the Senate voted unanimously for her appointment on Thursday during the same session that approved Kenneth Juster’s posting as Ambassador to India.
According to sources Singh will join Nikki Haley, the permanent UN representative, at the State Department. Haley has cabinet rank in President Donald Trump’s administration. Currently Singh has an important portfolio within the State Department given Trump’s approach to diplomacy as tools of trade and business development.
Meanwhile during that stint she handled intellectual
property issues, relations with the World Trade Organization, and trade and her
political career began as a staffer on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Before
that she was a lawyer, she was in the international law practice of a law firm.
