The recently arrived United States Ambassador to the Republic of Uzbekistan, Richard B. Norland, presented his credentials to the President of Uzbekistan, Islam Karimov, on Thursday, 20 September 2007.

Ambassador Norland is a career Foreign Service Officer. Prior to his nomination, he served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the American Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan (2005-2007), a press release of the Embassy of the USA in Tashkent said.

He has also served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the American Embassy in Riga, Latvia (2003-2005), and as Political Officer in Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan (October 2002-January 2003) where he worked with US Army Civil Affairs teams to promote political and economic reconstruction in Afghanistan.

Amb. Norland provided advice on the Northern Ireland peace process as Director for European Affairs at the National Security Council (1999-2001) and as Political Counselor at the American Embassy in Dublin, Ireland (1995-98). He served as a peacekeeping monitor in the Republic of Georgia with the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (1993) and visited Chechnya in a similar capacity in 1995.

Amb. Norland has also served as Political Officer at the American Embassy in Moscow, USSR (1988-1990), as Chief of the US Information Office in Tromso, Norway (1986-88), and as Senior Arctic Official coordinating the US chairmanship of the Arctic Council (1998-99). His first tour was at the American Embassy in Manama, Bahrain (1981-82).

Amb. Norland joined the Foreign Service in 1980. He graduated from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service in 1977. He has a Masters of International Public Policy degree from the Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies (1992) and a Masters of National Security Strategy degree from the National War College (2002). Amb. Norland speaks French, Russian, Norwegian and Latvian. He and his wife, Mary Hartnett, have two children.