Diplomacy – Accreditation of representatives

De gauche à droite : S.E. M. Datuk Ibrahim Abdullah, Ambassadeur de Malaisie ; S.E. M. Ismail Hakki Musa, Ambassadeur de la République de Turquie ; Gilles Tonelli, Conseiller de Gouvernement – Ministre des Relations Extérieures et de la Coopération ; S.E. M. Kristjan Andri Stefansson, Ambassadeur d’Islande et S.E. M. Alvaro De Soto, Ambassadeur du Pérou. ©Direction de la Communication / Frédéric Nebinger

On Thursday 13 July 2017, Gilles Tonelli, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, received, at a lunch held at the Hotel Hermitage, H.E. Mr Datuk Ibrahim Abdullah, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Malaysia, H.E. Mr Kristján Andri Stefánsson, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Iceland, H.E. Mr Alvaro De Soto, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Peru, and H.E. Mr Ismail Hakki Musa, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Turkey, who presented their credentials to H.S.H. the Sovereign Prince during the morning. 

H.E. MrDatuk Ibrahim Abdullah was appointed as the Deputy Director for the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1996. From 1998, he served as Counsellor and then Head of Mission at Malaysia’s Embassies in Turkey, Sudan and Japan. He became Malaysia’s High Commissioner to Nigeria in 2003, and then took up post as Director for the OIC in 2005. Promoted to Ambassador in 2008, he represented his country in Syria and Germany before becoming Deputy Secretary-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 

A lawyer by training, H.E. Mr Kristján Andri Stefánsson served as Legal Advisor to the Prime Minister of Iceland from 1994 to 2004, before becoming Minister Counsellor of the Directorate for Economic Affairs and External Trade in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was promoted to Ambassador in 2005, and then appointed as National EU Instrument of Pre-accession Assistance Coordinator. From 2014, he served as Director-General of the Directorate for Legal and Executive Affairs, and then as Deputy Permanent Secretary of State at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He is the first Ambassador of Iceland to be accredited in Monaco. 

A career diplomat since 1966, H.E. Mr Alvaro De Soto served in senior leadership posts at the United Nations under Secretaries-General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, Boutros Boutros-Ghali and Kofi Annan. In 1982, he was appointed as Special Advisor to the United Nations Secretary-General, for whom he became the Personal Representative to the Central American Peace Process. In 1995, he was appointed as United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs. He has served as a mediator in Cyprus and as Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process. 

H.E. Mr Ismail Hakki Musa was appointed as Turkey’s Consul in Lyon in 1994. After working in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Directorate for Bilateral Economic Affairs, in 1997 he joined Turkey’s Permanent Delegation to the European Communities as a Counsellor. In 2005, he served as Head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Department for Administrative and Financial Affairs, becoming Plenipotentiary Minister within the same department. He has also served as Consul General in Lyon, Ambassador to Belgium and Deputy Under Secretary of State to the Prime Minister.