Acting Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Susan Thornton will lead a high-level U.S. government delegation to the 29th Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Session with Forum Dialogue Partners (PIF FDP) on September 7, 2017 in Apia, Samoa. Her visit will demonstrate U.S. commitment to our continuing close partnership with the Pacific Islands in promoting sustainable growth and prosperity, ensuring regional stability, and addressing environmental concerns.
The U.S. delegation will include senior officials from the U.S. Department of State, Department of Defense, U.S. Coast Guard, and the U.S. Agency for International Development. The PIF FDP will provide a forum for U.S. and Pacific Islands leaders to discuss issues of regional and global importance including security, climate change, marine conservation, sustainable development, and health. Acting Assistant Secretary Thornton will conduct bilateral consultations with heads of state of Pacific Islands Forum members and other senior foreign officials.
Acting Assistant Secretary Thornton will host a roundtable with Pacific Islands leaders. While in Samoa, she will also tour a U.S. Department of Defense’s Overseas Humanitarian, Disaster, and Civic Aid (OHDACA) funded school renovation project at Safata College and speak at a reception honoring recipients of U.S. Embassy Apia’s public diplomacy grant funding.
Follow the Bureau of East Asia Pacific Affairs on Twitter @USAsiaPacific for updates on Acting Assistant Secretary Thornton’s trip.
Susan Thornton assumed responsibility as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in February 2016, after serving for a year and a half as Deputy Assistant Secretary. A career-member of the United States Foreign Service, Ms. Thornton joined the State Department in 1991 and has spent the last twenty years working on U.S. policy in Eurasia, focused on the countries of the former Soviet Union and East Asia.
As Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Ms. Thornton is responsible for policy related to China, Mongolia, and Taiwan.
Previous Foreign Service assignments include Deputy Chief of Mission to the U.S. Embassy in Turkmenistan., Deputy Director of the Office of Chinese and Mongolian Affairs at the State Department in Washington, Economic Unit Chief in the Office of Korean Affairs, and overseas postings in Beijing, Chengdu, Yerevan and Almaty.
Prior to joining the Foreign Service, Ms. Thornton worked at the Foreign Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., where she researched and wrote about Soviet bureaucratic politics and contemporary Russia. She speaks Russian and Mandarin Chinese.