(UDHAYAM, COLOMBO) – US President Donald Trump has named Lt Gen HR McMaster as his national security adviser.
He will replace Lt Gen Michael Flynn who was fired after just three weeks and three days in the job.
A lieutenant general with the US Army, HR McMaster served in Iraq and Afghanistan, where he worked on a government anti-corruption drive.
Trump’s first choice, retired Vice Admiral Robert Harward, turned down the role, citing “personal reasons”.
Trump praised Herbert Raymond McMaster as “a man of tremendous talent and tremendous experience” who is “highly respected by everybody in the military”.
Gen McMaster said it is a privilege to be able to continue serving the nation and that he looks forward to joining the national security team.
Gen McMaster served in Afghanistan and Iraq, and is known as a thoughtful, straight-talking, military strategist.
The BBC reported he does not appear to have close ties to Moscow, and was recently commissioned to study the ways the US could counter some of Russia’s military advances.
Time magazine named him as one of its 100 most influential people in the world in 2014, saying he “might be the 21st Century Army’s pre-eminent warrior-thinker”.
