OPPOSITION spokesman on foreign affairs and foreign trade, Edmund Bartlett, says he welcomes the appointment of veteran financial consultant Ralph Thomas as Jamaica’s new ambassador to the United States.

Bartlett, in a release yesterday, said that there is every indication that Thomas had performed creditably in his most recent role as ambassador to China.

“As such, his nomination to what may be considered a more challenging assignment, comes as no surprise,” Bartlett said.

Also welcoming the decision to appoint Thomas — who had failed in his bid to dislodge Opposition Jamaica Labour Party veteran MP Pearnel Charles in 2007 in Clarendon North Central — was US Congresswoman Yvette D Clarke, who has Jamaican heritage and is a member of the Committee on Energy and Commerce in the US House of Representatives.

She said that Thomas has the opportunity to build on the relationship between the United States and Jamaica by facilitating investment and encouraging collaboration on initiatives such as the development of renewable energy, for which President Barack Obama has already pledged his support.

“I remain committed to working with my colleagues in Congress, President Obama, and the Department of State, and the Nation of Jamaica to contribute to the renewal of its economy and the aspirations of its people in Jamaica and around the world in the 21st century,” Congresswoman Clarke said.

Thomas, a senior teaching fellow at the Mona School of Business Management and lecturer in the Department of Management Studies at the University of the West Indies, was the personal choice of Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller to replace Ambassador Courtenay Rattray, who was transferred from Beijing to the post of Jamaica’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York in June 2013.

Thomas’s transfer from Beijing to Washington is seen as reward for his handling of relationships between China and the Jamaican Government since his appointment in June 2013.

This was confirmed by a statement issued by Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator A J Nicholson, who said on Monday that Thomas would ensure the continuation and strengthening of Jamaica/USA relations, especially in the area of economic development.

“This level of critical thinking and creative energy is what we expect of Ambassador Thomas to bring to the relationship with the USA,” Nicholson said.

In his release yesterday, Bartlett said that Thomas’s deployment to Washington comes at a critical juncture, not only as it relates to Jamaica’s relationship and pursuit of its strategic interests, where the United States is concerned, but also as it relates to the recent geo-political developments within the hemisphere.

“I have every confidence that his experience, competence, and professionalism will see him acquitting himself well, and upholding the illustrious traditions of those distinguished Jamaicans who have served before him as Jamaica’s ambassador to the United States,” the Opposition spokesman said.