BIOGRAPHY Richard Roth Ambassador, Senegal and Guinea-Bissau Term of Appointment: 12/11/2002 to 08/09/2005

Richard Allan Roth, the Ambassador of the United States of America to the Republic of Senegal and the Republic of Guinea-Bissau, arrived in Dakar on December 29, 2002. A career member of the Senior Foreign Service, he has had extensive experience in African and Middle Eastern affairs. He has held several senior positions with the U.S Department of State in Washington and abroad.

Ambassador Roth served as a Peace Corps volunteer for three and a half years in Burkina Faso before starting his diplomatic career in 1973 with an assignment in the Department of State’s Bureau of African Affairs. His first overseas assignment was in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where he served as a political officer at the U.S. Embassy from 1976 to 1978. He subsequently completed a two-year stint as a political and economic officer at the U.S. Consulate in Johannesburg, South Africa. After another posting to the State Department’s Bureau of African Affairs, where he was desk officer for Kenya and the Seychelles, Ambassador Roth became chief of the Political Section at the U.S. Embassy in Algiers, Algeria.

After three years as Deputy Political Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Lisbon, Portugal, Ambassador Roth returned to Washington to assume the post of Deputy Director for Southern African Affairs in 1990. During his three years as Deputy Director, he was a member of the U.S. negotiating teams that led the international effort to reach peace agreements in Angola and Mozambique. This assignment was followed by a tour as Deputy Director of the Office of Israel and Palestinian Affairs between 1993 and 1995, and an additional year as Director of that office.

Ambassador Roth then served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv, Israel from 1996 to 2000. Afterward he became the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, and was Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs in May and June 2001. In August and September of that same year he served as Chargé d’Affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Harare, Zimbabwe. His most recent assignment before taking charge of the U.S. Mission in Senegal was that of Special Advisor to the Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs.

Speaking at his October 3, 2002 confirmation hearing before the United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Ambassador Roth noted the excellent relations between the United States and Senegal, including the two countries’ cooperation on important security and conflict resolution issues. He also emphasized the importance of reaching out to Senegal’s Muslim community and maintaining clear lines of communication with religious leaders. "Religious leaders play a very important role, not only in politics, but in community issues.” The career diplomat underlined the importance of face-to-face meetings with a wide variety of people from all of Senegal’s regions. Of his plans for Guinea-Bissau, where he represents the United States as a non-resident ambassador, Ambassador Roth said, "I intend to visit there at least several times a year.”

Ambassador Roth earned a degree in literature from the University of Michigan and speaks French, Portuguese, Amharic, Arabic and the West African languages of Moré and Bissa.