New AIT Director Raymond Greene starts work

Taipei, July 9 (CNA) Raymond Greene began work as director of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) on Tuesday.

Greene, who served as deputy AIT director from 2018 to 2021, replaces Sandra Oudkirk as director of the institute, which represents U.S. interests in Taiwan in the absence of official diplomatic ties.

"Director Greene looks forward to building on the successes of his predecessors and to further advancing the rock-solid U.S.-Taiwan partnership," the AIT said in a statement.

The AIT said that Greene, a member of the U.S. State Department's Senior Foreign Service, had dedicated his 28-year career to advancing U.S. diplomatic, economic, and security interests in the Indo-Pacific region.

Greene's previous overseas assignments included serving as U.S. consul general in Chengdu, China, and Okinawa, Japan. He was also a former chief of the Political-Military Affairs Unit at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, deputy chief of the Political Section at AIT Taipei, and a political officer in Tokyo and Manila.

The new AIT director also held Washington-based roles at the Japan and East Asian Economic Affairs at the National Security Council and the Office of Economic Policy in the State Department's Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs.

Greene most recently served as deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Japan.