Washington: In the most significant appointment yet for India from the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump on Monday announced Mike Waltz, a Congressman from Florida who is the co-chair of the India Caucus, as his new National Security Adviser.
Waltz, 50, is a retired Army colonel who served as a Green Beret, an elite special forces unit of the US Army. He has been a member of the US House of Representatives since 2019. He has been a forceful critic of President Joe Biden’s foreign policy and serves on the House Armed Services Committee, House Foreign Affairs Committee, and the House Intelligence Committee this term.
He has called for Europe to do more to support Ukraine and for the US to be more stringent with its support, aligning with a key foreign policy goal of the President-elect. He has also been a staunch critic of the Biden administration’s 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan. Waltz has praised Trump for pushing Nato allies to spend more on defence, but unlike the President-elect has not suggested the US pull out of the alliance.
“Look we can be allies and friends and have tough conversations,” Waltz said last month Waltz is also on the Republican’s China taskforce and has argued the US military is not as prepared as it needs to be if there is conflict in the Indo-Pacific region. Waltz had been open about his willingness to serve in the administration and was considered a candidate to lead the Pentagon. The role of National Security Adviser does not require Senate confirmation. Waltz is also a co-chair of the India Caucus in the House, which is the largest country-specific group in the US Congress.