Natalie Baker named US ambassador to Pakistan by Trump: who is she?
Trump picked Natalie Baker, who has run the US embassy in Islamabad since January 2025, as ambassador. The Senate must confirm her. Her career and what changes.
President Donald Trump has nominated Natalie Baker as the next US ambassador to Pakistan, the White House announced on Monday, 9 November. Baker is not new to Islamabad: she has been running the US embassy there as chargé d’affaires since January 2025, so the nomination would turn the person Pakistanis already see at official events into the full ambassador.
The nomination now goes to the US Senate, which must confirm it before she can take the title.
Who is Natalie Baker?
The White House described Baker as a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, at the rank of Minister-Counselor, from Texas. She joined the Islamabad embassy as deputy chief of mission in August 2024, The Express Tribune and Arab News reported, and took charge of the mission after Ambassador Donald Blome left in early 2025.
Before Pakistan she served as deputy chief of mission in Doha, as economic counsellor in Kuwait, and as political and economic counsellor in Libya from 2009 to 2011, according to the reports. That is a career built almost entirely in the Gulf and the Middle East.
Why the post has been empty
Washington has had no confirmed ambassador in Islamabad since Blome’s departure, nearly two years. In that time Baker has been the face of the US mission in Pakistan. If the Senate confirms her, she will be the first full US ambassador in Islamabad since Blome.
What it means for Pakistan
An ambassador carries more weight than a chargé d’affaires: it signals that Washington wants a settled channel with Islamabad. The timing matters. Pakistan has been talking to the US about trade and tariffs, minerals investment and security, and the region is tense with the US-Iran war and the Strait of Hormuz crisis next door. Picking someone who already knows the people involved avoids a long settling-in period.
The Foreign Office had not publicly commented on the nomination when this was written.
What happens next
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will schedule a hearing, where Baker will answer senators’ questions about Pakistan policy. Only after a committee vote and a full Senate vote can she present her credentials in Islamabad. Until then, she stays in charge as chargé d’affaires.
