New Delhi, April 16 -- South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has appointed veteran politician Roelf Meyer as the country's ambassador to the United States in a move widely seen as an effort to ease diplomatic tensions between the two nations.

Meyer was minister of defense from 1991 to 1992 under the white minority government of former President F.W. De Klerk's National Party. He later was a chief negotiator in the negotiations that brought an end to apartheid and led to the election of Nelson Mandela as the country's first Black and democratically elected leader in 1994. Meyer served in Mandela's cabinet as constitutional development minister from 1994 to 1996.

Meyer's appointment comes during a period of strained relations between So...