US proposes lawyer with banking oversight experience as new ambassador to Lithuania

US President Donald Trump has nominated Keith Noreika, a lawyer specialising in banking supervision and financial regulation, to serve as the next US ambassador to Lithuania, LRT reports.

The White House formally submitted Noreika’s candidacy to the US Senate on Monday. His nomination will require approval through a public hearing in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, followed by a full Senate vote. With Republicans holding a majority, rejection of Trump’s pick is considered unlikely.

Noreika briefly led the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency—a 4,000-employee agency overseeing national banks—in 2017 during Trump’s first administration. Sources link him to the circle of Republican Senator Tom Cotton, a vocal NATO and Ukraine supporter. One source described Noreika as holding a “correct” view of Russia and the Baltic states.

If confirmed, Noreika would break a decades-long tradition of appointing career diplomats to the post. Since Lithuania re-established its embassy in 1992, all US ambassadors—including the current envoy, Kara McDonald—have been professional diplomats. Trump has similarly nominated non-diplomats to Latvia and Estonia, including real estate investor Melissa Argyros and lawyer Roman Pipko.

In Poland, Trump’s appointee Thomas Rose, also a non-career diplomat, sparked controversy by threatening to cut ties with a Polish lawmaker who refused to back Trump’s Nobel Prize nomination.