Michael Keays appointed Chargé d’Affaires of the United States in Montenegro

Michael Keays has been appointed Chargé d’Affaires of the United States in Montenegro, the U.S. Embassy in Podgorica confirmed to Portal ETV.

The Embassy stated that Keyes is a career diplomat in the U.S. Senior Foreign Service.

He currently serves as a Senior Advisor on the Policy Planning Staff at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C.

Keays is expected to arrive in Podgorica in the coming weeks.

Extensive biography

Michael Keays is a long-serving American diplomat with extensive experience in political-military affairs, security issues, and the post-Soviet region, according to information available on official websites and his LinkedIn profile.

Before joining the Policy Planning Staff at the State Department, he served as a Senior Advisor with a primary focus on subsea cables and strategic infrastructure, as well as on strategic planning within relevant State Department bureaus.

From 2022 to 2024, he served as a Senior Diplomatic Fellow at the Kennan Institute at the Wilson Center, where he worked on issues related to Russia and Ukraine. From 2019 to 2022, he served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Suriname.

Prior to that, he spent three years as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Paramaribo, Suriname, and three years as Principal Officer and Consul General at the U.S. Consulate General in Vladivostok, Russia.

He also served as Senior Advisor for Ukraine in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs and earned a Master’s degree in National Security Strategy from the National War College.

His previous overseas assignments include postings at U.S. embassies in Tel Aviv, Warsaw, Moscow, and Kingston. He also served as a State Department representative on the U.S. Provincial Reconstruction Team in Ghazni Province, Afghanistan, during 2008–2009.

He began his career in Moscow (1995–1997) as a political officer, special assistant to the ambassador, and vice consul. In the late 1990s, he worked as an advisor in the Office of the Special Negotiator for Regional Conflicts in the former USSR, focusing on Nagorno-Karabakh and Transnistria within the framework of the OSCE-led process.