Ms Kathleen Troia McFarland, 65, nominated to be the next US ambassador to Singapore described the strategic importance of the tiny nation as the security gateway between East and West and as the entrance to the South China Sea.

Former deputy national security adviser, McFarland was nominated by US President Donald Trump as the United States' next ambassador to Singapore, pending clearance from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Since the world's diplomatic chessboard is being rearranged, McFarland highlighted Singapore's importance in a region beset with North Korea on one side trying to emerge as a nuclear weapons state and China on the other side flexing its military muscle.

"Singapore's value to the United States is more than just our bilateral relationship, strong as it may be," she said in a statement. Despite its small size, Singapore is located in one of the most geostrategically important locations in the world, she noted.

Singapore is the "economic gateway between East and West as one of the world's most important trade routes on the Malacca straits" and key port providing the entrance to the South China Sea, she said.

On economic front, US currently enjoys trade surplus of nearly US$20 billion (S$27.3 billion) with Singapore and nearly 215,000 jobs are supported by the tiny country in Asia, while its investments gross US$180 billion.

Prior to her nomination, Ms. McFarland served as Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor and as national security professional providing extensive analysis for Fox News. She served in the Nixon, Ford, and Reagan administrations on the National Security Council, and in the Department of Defense before joining the Trump Administration.

"I am pleased to nominate K.T. McFarland to be Ambassador to Singapore, one of America's great allies," President Trump said in his nomination statement. Echoing similar view, H.R. McMaster, President Trump's National Security Advisor, said, "K.T. is leaving a great team in place to support the President, and our friends in Singapore know they are getting one of his top aides as their American ambassador."