Kim Darroch

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Kim Darroch (2016)
Kim Darroch (right) as National Security Advisor at a meeting between Prime Minister David Cameron (center), who is seated next to him, with US President Barack Obama on January 25, 2015, and then British Ambassador Peter Westmacott to the left
Ambassador Kim Darroch (center) at a meeting with then US Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson (left) on May 4, 2016

Sir Kim Darroch KCMG (born April 30, 1954 in South Stanley, County Durham , United Kingdom ) is a British diplomat and ambassador.

life and career

Darroch was educated at Abingdon School and the University of Durham , where he graduated with a bachelor's degree in zoology in 1975. He has been married to Vanessa since 1978 and has two grown children, Simon and Georgina.

He joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1976 and has served in his country's diplomatic service since 1977 .

After many international assignments, Darroch was an advisor to the Blair government on European Union affairs from 2004 to 2007 . He was then sent to the EU as the UK's permanent representative until 2011. From 2012 to 2015 he was secretary of the National Security Council.

In January 2016, Kim Darroch took over the post of British Ambassador to the United States, succeeding Peter Westmacott . Following criticism of his private assessments of the Trump administration leaked to the press, Darroch resigned as ambassador on July 10, 2019. A change of office was actually planned for the end of 2019.

Trump administration judgments

On July 7, 2019, the tabloid Mail on Sunday reported inadvertently publicized internal assessments by Darroch, in which he classified Donald Trump's presidency as "dysfunctional, unpredictable, divided, diplomatically awkward and awkward". President Trump responded the following day with a tweet in which he wrote that he did not know the ambassador, that they did not have a good opinion of him in the United States and that no further agreements were to be negotiated with him. On the same day, Darroch was unloaded from a dinner at the US Treasury Department in honor of the Emir of Qatar . President Trump later berated Darroch on social media as a "crazy ambassador", "very stupid guy" who was told "he was a bloated fool".

After Darroch's resignation, further confidential statements by Darroch became known on July 14, 2019. In a memo to the then British Foreign Minister Boris Johnson, Darroch pleaded for the 2015 negotiated agreement with Iran on the Iranian nuclear program to be retained and described the termination of the same by the Trump administration as "diplomatic vandalism".

As early as November 2016, shortly after his election , Trump had indirectly advocated the recall of Darroch as ambassador by openly speaking out in favor of the then UKIP chairman Nigel Farage as British ambassador to the United States.

Reactions to the resignation

Simon McDonald , Under-Secretary in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, called a meeting of the diplomatic corps. He described the leakage of the confidential information as the greatest breach of trust in the British diplomatic service that he had seen in his career, and he thanked Darroch for his work. Theresa May expressed her regret over Darroch's resignation. McDonald said it was the first time in history, to the best of his knowledge, that a befriended power had refused to cooperate with an incumbent British diplomat and this must have consequences. He later added that the cooperation between the United Kingdom and the United States was so deep and broad that it could withstand any single dispute.

Web links

Commons : Kim Darroch  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b British ambassador resigns from office. In: tagesschau.de. July 10, 2019, accessed July 10, 2019 .
  2. ↑ sueddeutsche.de July 10, 2019: For lack of backing
  3. ↑ Trump administration is 'inept and insecure', says UK ambassador. BBC News, July 7, 2019, accessed July 7, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Trump: 'We won't deal with UK ambassador' after leaked emails. BBC News, July 8, 2019, accessed July 8, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Dave Boyer: Trump shuts out British ambassador for high-level dinner. The Washington Times, July 9, 2019, accessed July 9, 2019 .
  6. ↑ New leak claims Trump scrapped Iran nuclear deal 'to spite Obama'. BBC News, July 14, 2019, accessed July 14, 2019 .
  7. ↑ Nigel Farage attacks response to Trump ambassador tweet. In: BBC News. November 22, 2016, accessed July 8, 2019 .
  8. ↑ Foreign policy: Johnson has thrown US ambassador under the bus, say top Tories. In: The Guardian. July 10, 2019, accessed on July 11, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Darroch, Kim
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British diplomat and ambassador
DATE OF BIRTH April 30, 1954
PLACE OF BIRTH South Stanley, County Durham , United Kingdom