The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

US Senator Christopher Dodd said he’s been told that officials are making progress to find a new US ambassador to The Bahamas, more than ten years after the last American ambassador stepped down.

The country has not had an American Ambassador since 2011 when Nicole Avant stepped down from the post. She was appointed to the position in June of 2009 by President Barack Obama.

While there have been several people nominated for the position over the years, no one has yet been appointed to the role.

Among the most recent picks for the position were real estate developer Douglas Manchester and entrepreneur and philanthropist William A Douglass, who were both nominated by US President Donald Trump in 2017 and 2020 respectively.

However, both nominations have since been withdrawn.

Asked about the Biden’s administration’s plans to appoint an ambassador to The Bahamas, Senator Dodd said he was told that work is currently underway in that regard and added that officials are hoping to hear some good news soon.

However, he said one of the challenges in getting the position filled was “domestic politics”, but refrained from providing additional details on the issue.

“I had a good conversation with the Prime Minister (Phillp) Davis in The Bahamas,” Senator Dodd said at a virtual press briefing yesterday. “We had a phone conversation and a virtual conversation as he wasn’t able to be in Barbados for the other meetings and I want to tell you the first thing I brought up before we got into discussions with some of the other issues that I just addressed.

“I made a personal commitment probably not being appreciated in the administration of the State Department, but I know exactly the problem. It’s been 11 years since we had an ambassador in The Bahamas and I promised that whatever I can do that will see to it that you get the ambassador. I’m told that progress is being made on that. I’ve asked about it and they told me that it’s moving along. We’ve had a problem – a lot of it has been domestic politics which I’m not going to go into here, but it’s been a very slow process to even get nominations, to get hearings and to get people confirmed. It’s beginning to open up and move along and I’ve been told that there’s some good news, we hope, pending on The Bahamas when it comes to that question. But I want you to know that it was the first conversation the prime minister and I had about issues and he talked about the other ones as well, but this was the first matter that came up.”

Wendall Jones, founder of Jones communications, is currently serving as the Bahamian ambassador to the United States.