Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb. 6 / Trend V. Zhavoronkova /
Newly appointed U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan Matthew Bryza arrived in Baku on Sunday.
U.S President Barack Obama has appointed Matthew Bryza as U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan.
According to the U.S. Constitution, the Senate of the U.S Congress must nominate the candidates proposed by the president. However, when Congress is in recess between sessions, the President may appoint officials himself.
The presidential decree provides an opportunity to fulfill new duties immediately, without waiting for approval by the Senate. But if the senators do not approve the nomination before the end of the next session of Congress (November-December 2011), this decree ceases to operate.
Obama used his constitutional power to recess appoint six people who have had their nominations pending for an average of 147 days, according to White House officials. The U.S Senate Committee on Foreign Relations approved Bryza's appointment on Sept. 22.
Bryza served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of European and Eurasian Affairs.
Bryza's candidacy was officially proposed by U.S. President Barack Obama.
The post of U.S. Ambassador in Baku had been vacant since the previous ambassador, Anne Derse, left it after completing of her diplomatic mission in July 2009.
Bryza was appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary of European and Eurasian Affairs in 2005. He previously served as the Director for Europe and Eurasia at the National Security Council in the White House and has also been Special Advisor to the President and Secretary of State on Caspian Basin Energy Diplomacy. He had earlier served in Russia and Poland, and was appointed as the U.S. co-chair of OSCE Minsk Group on Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.