{"id":2888,"date":"2014-12-22T13:59:38","date_gmt":"2014-12-22T21:59:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ellisoncenter.washington.edu\/?p=2888"},"modified":"2016-09-21T20:33:03","modified_gmt":"2016-09-21T20:33:03","slug":"alumni-new-ambassador-to-turkmenistan-experienced-in-the-region","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/ellisoncenter\/news\/alumni-new-ambassador-to-turkmenistan-experienced-in-the-region\/","title":{"rendered":"ALUMNI | New Ambassador to Turkmenistan experienced in the region"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Sarah McPhee<\/p>\n

Considering the controversy surrounding some recent ambassadorial appointments<\/a>, it is encouraging to see that UW alumnus Allan Mustard has become the new Ambassador to Turkmenistan. A native of Brady, Washington, Mustard earned \u00a0B.A. in political science and Slavic languages and literature in 1978 from the University of Washington. Of Ambassador Mustard\u2019s 29 years in the Foreign Service, 20 of those years were spent at U.S. missions abroad. He began his foreign service career as a member of the Foreign Agricultural Service through the USDA. He speaks Russian, German, and basic Spanish.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Afgh\"<\/p>\n

Turkmen assistance, leadership and support has been crucial to Afghanistan.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

In his confirmation hearing<\/a>, Ambassador Mustard demonstrated his unique understanding of the region, stating that \u201cCentral Asia stands at the crossroads of the New Silk Road, connecting Asian and European markets.\u201d Despite well-known human rights issues<\/a>, he lauded Turkmenistan\u2019s leadership in Central Asia, noting that the Turkmen government had provided Afghanistan with \u201cdiscounted electricity, housing, hospitals, and other forms of humanitarian aid.\u201d He insisted that Turkmenistan\u2019s support\u00a0has been vital to rebuilding infrastructure in Afghanistan. Ambassador Mustard further outlined the importance of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India, or \u201cTAPI,\u201d pipeline to strengthening economic ties between Central and South Asia.<\/p>\n

\"Mustard_Russian<\/a><\/p>\n

Official visit of Allan Mustard as the Minister-Counselor for Agricultural Affairs at U.S. Embassy in the Russian Federation<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Despite extending an invitation to Jennifer Lopez<\/a>, Turkmenistan is known as one of the most closed societies in the world, with a high public perception of corruption<\/a>. Still, Mustard intends to encourage openness and reform, and hopes to persuade Turkmenistan to join the WTO. \u00a0He reminded the Senate that Boeing, General Electric, and many other western companies<\/a> have been successful operating in Turkmenistan. Ambassador Mustard’s experience in the Soviet Union, Turkey, Russia, India, and Mexico will be extremely helpful to him in supporting these goals at his new post.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Considering the controversy surrounding some recent ambassadorial appointments, it is encouraging to see that UW alumnus Allan Mustard has become the new Ambassador to Turkmenistan. A native of Brady, Washington, Mustard earned B.A. in political science and Slavic languages and literature in 1978 from the University of Washington. Of Ambassador Mustard\u2019s 29 years in the Foreign Service, 20 of those years were spent at U.S. missions abroad. He began his foreign service career as a member of the Foreign Agricultural Service through the USDA. He speaks Russian, German, and basic Spanish.<\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":416,"featured_media":8532,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,16],"tags":[47,49,87,196],"class_list":["post-2888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni-spotlight","category-news","tag-career","tag-central-asia","tag-foreign-service","tag-turkmenistan"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nALUMNI | New Ambassador to Turkmenistan experienced in the region - The Ellison Center<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/ellisoncenter\/news\/alumni-new-ambassador-to-turkmenistan-experienced-in-the-region\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"ALUMNI | New Ambassador to Turkmenistan experienced in the region - The Ellison Center\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Considering the controversy surrounding some recent ambassadorial appointments, it is encouraging to see that UW alumnus Allan Mustard has become the new Ambassador to Turkmenistan. 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