Alice Wells' wise counsel over South Asia will be missed: Pompeo

With Alice Wells set to retire from the State Department later this month, Secretary of State Michael Pompeo has said that he will miss the senior diplomat's counsel and dedicated efforts to build relationships and address challenges across South and Central Asia.

"After 31 years of dedicated service, Ambassador Alice Wells will retire from @StateDept this month. I will miss Alice's wise counsel and dedicated efforts to build relationships and address challenges across South and Central Asia," Pompeo tweeted.

"I personally came to admire Ambassador Wells' dedication to our team's mission and her dogged pursuit of American excellence. We commend her service and wish her the best," he wrote in a subsequent tweet.

Wells, a career Foreign Service Officer, assumed her duties as Acting Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asia on June 26, 2017. She previously served as the US Ambassador to Jordan, a senior adviser in the Near Eastern Affairs Bureau in the Department of State, as Special Assistant to the President for Russia and Central Asia in the White House (2012-2013) among other key posts.

She has also served as a political officer at US Embassy New Delhi, US Embassy Islamabad and US Embassy Riyadh.

( With inputs from ANI )