Meet The New US Ambassador To Suriname

New US Ambassador to Suriname, Edwin Richard Nolan, Jr.

By NAN Staff Writer

News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Thurs. Oct. 29, 2015: The U.S. has a new Ambassador to Suriname.

He is Edwin Richard Nolan, Jr., of Massachusetts, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, Class of Minister-Counselor who was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on October 8, 2015.

Ambassador Nolan joined the Foreign Service in 1981. His early assignments included being a rotational officer at the embassy in Ottawa, Canada; political officer in the Office of Strategic Technology Affairs; a member of the U.S. delegation to the Conference on Confidence and Security Building Measures and Disarmament in Europe; political-military officer in the office of North Atlantic Treaty Organization Affairs; and political-military officer at the embassy in Oslo, Norway. Nolan has continued with his work in arms control and military issues to this day.

In 1992, he was named desk officer for Italy, the Vatican and Malta in the State Department’s Office of Western European Affairs. Nolan was sent as an exchange officer to the Department of Defense in 1994 as the DoD’s country director for Nordics. He returned to the State Department in 1996 as deputy director and political officer in the Office of Policy, Planning and Coordination in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs.

Ambassador Nolan was sent to Ireland as chief of the political/economic section in the embassy in Dublin in 1998. In 2002, he was made Deputy Chief of Mission in Nicosia, Cyprus. He was in charge of the embassy when the State Department issued a negative report on Cyprus’ human rights record. Nolan was forced to bear the brunt of the Cypriot government’s anger at the report.

He returned to Washington in 2005 as deputy director in the Office of United Kingdom, Benelux, and Ireland in the Bureau of European Affairs and in 2007 was named political officer in the Office of European Affairs. In 2008, he was named Director of the Office of Canadian Affairs.

Ambassador Nolan went overseas again in 2010 as Deputy Chief of Mission, and for a time Chargé d’Affaires, at the U.S. Embassy in The Hague. He returned to Ottawa in 2013 in the rank of minister-counselor for political affairs at the embassy there.

Ambassador Nolan has a Bachelor’s Degree in history and political science from Boston College and a post-graduate degree at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. He and his wife, Tricia, have two children. He speaks Spanish, Norwegian, and German.

At his Senate hearing in August, Ambassador Nolan said he is looking “forward to engaging with Suriname’s communities and learning how Suriname might be able to share its experiences with others in the region and around the world.”

He also pledged to work with the Surinamese government of President Desiré Bouterse to promote the adoption of policies to increase American trade and investment between our two countries. Increased trade has the potential to drive progress and growth in Suriname, and it is in both of our interests to increase economic ties.

The Business Council for International Understanding (BCIU) will host the ambassador on November 5th in Washington, D.C.