Washington, July 6 (CNA) The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) announced Tuesday that Sandra Oudkirk, United States deputy assistant secretary of state for Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands, has been appointed as the new director of its Taipei office.
The current director Brent Christensen, who took up his post in August 2018, will leave Taiwan in the middle of this month after ending his three-year tenure.
AIT Washington Headquarters announced that Oudkirk will assume the post of Washington's top envoy in Taiwan, succeeding Christensen beginning summer 2021.
The AIT is the de facto U.S. embassy in Taiwan. It was established in 1979, when Washington switched its diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing and enacted the Taiwan Relations Act to maintain unofficial ties with Taiwan.
Oudkirk has been in the United States foreign service for 30 years and joined the Bureau of East Asian & Pacific Affairs as U.S. senior official for APEC and deputy assistant secretary for Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands in May 2019, according to a statement issued by AIT.
She speaks Mandarin Chinese and Turkish. Her previous overseas assignments include consular assignments at AIT/Taipei and at the Dublin Embassy in Ireland as well as postings in Turkey, Jamaica and Beijing.
Oudkirk has also served as an East Asian & Pacific Bureau staff assistant, the Burma/Laos desk officer, as a senior Operations Center watch officer and as director for the Middle East and Asia in the Energy Bureau.
She was born and raised in Tampa, Florida and is a graduate of Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service.
Oudkirk visited Taiwan in October 2019 to attend the inaugural Pacific Islands Dialogue, one month after the Solomon Islands and Kiribati cut diplomatic ties with Taipei for Beijing.
In her opening remarks, Oudkirk said she was representing then U.S. President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at the event and voiced Washington's support for diplomatic ties between Taiwan and independent states in the Pacific.
In a statement Tuesday, Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the government welcomes Oudkirk's appointment and looks forward to working closely with the AIT Taipei team led by her to further strengthen Taiwan-U.S. relations.
