Gabriel Escobar is expected to replace Matthew Palmer

US Deputy Ambassador to Serbia Gabriel Escobar is expected to take office next week as Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs at the US State Department.

This news has been confirmed for the Serbian news agency Beta from the US Embassy in Belgrade.

Matthew has held this post so far Palmer, who was also the special representative. The UN for the Western Balkans.

Who is Gabriel Escobar?

Gabriel Escobar in August 2019 was appointed to the post of deputy head of the mission at the American Embassy in Belgrade. Earlier, he had served as a full - time employee at this embassy.

From 1998 to 2001, Gabriel concluded four consecutive tours in the former Yugoslavia, where he served as chief of staff at the Office of High Representative in Banja Luka of Bosnia and Herzegovina, chief of the embassy branch in Banja Luqa, deputy director of the US Diplomatic Liaison Office team in Podgorica and 2001, shortly after the embassy was reopened in Belgrade, served as chief of the political unit at the US Embassy.

Meanwhile, at the Bureau for European Affairs, Gabriel has served as adviser to political and economic issues at the Embassy in Lisbon, deputy political adviser in Rome and political military official in Prague, as well as deputy in Moscow.

Gabriel, a career diplomat, has been honoured six times by the US Department of State with the Honorary High Prize and once with the High Merit Award. He has also been honoured by the UN for the Civil Service Award and received the Military Service Award.

He has also held high positions at the US Embassy in Baghdad, in La Paz, Peshavar, and has been the leader of the US team for reconstruction in Kirkuk, Iraq.

Gabriel graduated from Columbia University in New York and speaks Spanish, Russian, Italian, Serbian, Czech, and Portuguese.