Brigadier General Robin Fontes, the first woman defence attache at the US Embassy in India has been made in-charge of the South Asia desk of US National Security Council of the White House. According to a Pentagon announcement, Brigadier Fontes has been posted as Senior Director for India, Pakistan and Central Asian Affairs at the National Security Council.
Fontes will be in-charge of White House policy on India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and other South Asian countries and Central Asia under the Trump Administration. She would be replacing Peter lavoy, who was Director (South Asia) in the previous Obama administration. From the Defence Intelligence Agency, Fonte was the first female attache assigned to India and the first general officer to serve as an attache in India since the 1960s.
“(India) is a very important country to (the US) in the Pacific region. Developing good relations with India is key to meeting our national security objectives,” Fontes had said in December 2014 before taking up her Indian assignment.