South Carolina’s Indian-American Governor Nikki Haley has accepted President-elect Donald Trump’s offer to serve as US ambassador to the United Nations.

Trump’s plan to offer the job to 44-year-old Nikki Haley, a rising Republican star and daughter of Indian immigrants, was first reported by the Post and Courier. This marks his first female appointment to a cabinet-level post.

Haley, who is serving her second term, has worked on trade and labour issues as governor but brings little foreign policy experience. Her views on various US military and national security matters usually fall within the Republican Party’s hawkish mainstream.

Born Nimrata “Nikki” Randhawa, Haley is the first minority and female governor of South Carolina, a deeply conservative state with a long history of racial strife.

As the youngest governor in the US and only the second Indian-American to serve at the helm of a US state, she has been characterised as a rising star within the Republican Party.