President-elect Donald Trump  named South Carolina’s Indian American governor Nikki Haley as the US ambassador to the United Nations, a high profile cabinet-rank position that will make her a leading face of the administration’s foreign policy.

• If confirmed by the Senate, Haley, 44, will be the first Indian American to hold that position and to make it to the cabinet – the senior-most position held by anyone from the community from either the Republican or Democratic parties.

While Haley has travelled abroad eight times as two-term governor of South Carolina – including a trade mission to India in 2014 – she has no foreign policy experience, but is likely to conform to the Republican party line on most issues.

What Are the General Duties of an Ambassador?:

An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a highest ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state, or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or sovereign or appointed for a special and often temporary diplomatic assignment.

• The basic and most important duty of an ambassador is to represent the interests of the United States to foreign governments. Those interests shift over time, and with every new administration, making the job far more complex than it might seem. The president appoints people to serve as ambassadors who are either career diplomats with the U.S. Foreign Service – the majority of those serving — or political appointees not associated with the Foreign Service.