WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th July, 2023) President Joe Biden plans to nominate State Department Counselor Derek Chollet to be the next Undersecretary of Defense for Policy to replace Colin Kahl, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
The position will become vacant following the NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, this week, while Biden has not yet made his decision public, the report said on Monday.
Kahl is going to participate in the NATO summit, which is taking place on July 11-12, the report added.
Before assuming office as the State Department Counselor in January 2021, Chollet also served as the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs between June 2012 and November 2014 under then-President Barack Obama.
Chollet was among the US diplomats who were helping negotiate a deal between Germany and the United States in 2021 that threatened new sanctions linked to the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline if Russia cuts gas supplies to Europe, the report said.
The deal became obsolete in the aftermath of explosions that made the pipeline inoperable.
