Taubman Yet To Be Confirmed By Senate as Ambassador in Bucharest

The newly appointed US ambassador to Bucharest, Nicholas F. Taubman, 69, will not speak to Romanian media at least a few days after taking office in Bucharest, stated a State Department official who preferred not to be named.
Still, between nominating Taubman for the position and him actually moving to Bucharest, a few god months will pass, the official told Jurnalul National.

Taubman has no formal training as a diplomat. He is, however, a close friend of President George W. Bush, and a successful businessman.
"That Mr. Taubman is a close friend of President Bush is a good thing for Romania. Our ambassadors have both pluses and minuses. In Taubman’s case, him being close to the White House, it can only work as an advantage for Romania. This means the US recognizes the high level of interest it places in Romania," the official said.

The US opted to have ambassadors with no diplomatic training in other countries too, as Great Britain, France, Spain, Poland and Germany. Hence, during the next few months, Taubaman will follow a crash course in diplomacy and Romanian issues. During all this time he will not be able to comment with anyone on his future mission.
"It is pretty hard for a person to abstain from comment, even with his closest friends, about his future diplomatic mission. Mr. Taubaman would have to be quiet about it, since this quality is one of the first requirements the Department of State has of its employees. This is why I ask you and your colleagues in the Romanian media to understand that he will literally be unable to communicate with you for a few days after taking office in Bucharest," the official said.

For the past few months the American Embassy in Bucharest had no appointed ambassador. This is not rare, the Department of State official said: the US Embassy in South Africa worked for seven months with no ambassador at the helm.
The apparent lack of American ambassadors for staffing American embassies abroad is due to the fact that of the 240 diplomats of ambassadorial rank, 50 are deployed in Iraq.
The US envisages sending to Iraq a total of 2,000 diplomats. Tom Delare, the former chargee d’affaire in Bucharest, was also recently sent to Iraq.

After the White House nominated Taubman, he will answer the Senate’s line of questioning, before getting its seal of approval. This, however, is not expected to bring in any surprises.

"Taubmant is a smart person, otherwise he would have not succeeded in the business sector," the State Department official concluded.