In the most significant appointment yet for India, President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration on Monday announced Mike Waltz, a Florida congressman who is co-chair of the India Caucus, as its new National Security Advisor.
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 strong critic of President Joe Biden’s foreign policy and this term serves on the House Armed Services Committee, House Foreign Affairs Committee, and House Intelligence Committee.
He called on Europe to do more to support Ukraine and on the US to be more vigorous in its support, in line with the President-elect’s key foreign policy goals. He has also been a staunch critic of the Biden administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.
Waltz has praised Trump for pushing NATO allies to spend more on defense, but unlike the president-elect he has not suggested the US pull out of the alliance.
“Look, we can be allies and friends and have difficult conversations,” Waltz said last month.
Waltz also serves on the Republican China Taskforce and has argued that the U.S. military is not as prepared as it should be if conflict occurs in the Indo-Pacific region.
Waltz had spoken openly about his desire to serve in the administration and was considered a candidate to lead the Pentagon. The role of National Security Advisor does not require Senate confirmation.
Waltz is also co-chair of the House India Caucus, the largest country-specific group in the US Congress.
Trump is moving quickly to announce key personnel for his incoming administration, including his White House chief of staff Susan Wills, who will be the first woman to hold the post.
Other Trump appointments include senior adviser Stephen Miller, a well-known critic of the H-1B visa program, which he tried to end in Trump’s first administration.
The president-elect has been rapidly preparing a list of senior staff since winning last week’s election. He has already named Tom Homan as his “Border Czar,” Elise Stefanik as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, and Lee Zeldin as Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.
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