Diplomacy: accreditation of new ambassadors from Australia – Hungary – Egypt – Ukraine

Isabelle Berro-Amadeï, Conseiller de Gouvernement-Ministre des Relations Extérieures et de la Coopération et Laurent Anselmi, Chef de Cabinet de S.A.S. le Prince Albert II, entourés de Georges Habsbourg-Lorraine, Ambassadeur Extraordinaire et Plénipotentiaire de Hongrie, Gillian Elizabeth Bird, Ambassadeur Extraordinaire et Plénipotentiaire d’Australie, Vadym Omelchenko, Ambassadeur Extraordinaire et Plénipotentiaire d’Ukraine et Alaaeldin Zakaria Youssef, Ambassadeur Extraordinaire et Plénipotentiaire de la République Arabe d’Egypte © Stéphane Danna - Direction de la Communication

On Tuesday 8 March, at a lunch held at the Hotel Hermitage, Isabelle Berro-Amadeï, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, received H.E. Ms Gillian Elizabeth Bird, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Australia; H.E. Mr Georges Habsbourg-Lorraine, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Hungary; H.E. Mr Alaaeldin Zakaria Youssef, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Arab Republic of Egypt; and H.E. Mr Vadym Omelchenko, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine.

The diplomats presented their credentials to H.S.H. the Sovereign Prince during the morning.

H.E. Ms Gillian Elizabeth Bird joined the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs in 1980, and served in a number of different posts over the years, including Deputy Secretary from 2004 to 2014 and Australia’s first Ambassador to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations from 2008 to 2013. From 2015 to 2019, she was Australia’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations.

H.E. Mr Georges Habsbourg-Lorraine worked extensively in journalism and communications before settling in Hungary in 1996, when he was appointed Roving Ambassador for the Office of the Hungarian Prime Minister. He served as President of the Hungarian Red Cross from 2004 to 2012, and was appointed as Hungary’s Ambassador to Paris in December 2020.

Having joined the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1991, H.E. Mr Alaaeldin Zakaria Youssef occupied a number of posts within the Ministry before being appointed as the President’s spokesperson from 2014 to 2017. He served as Egypt’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Conference on Disarmament, World Trade Organization and other international organisations in Geneva from 2017 to 2020 and was then appointed as the Egyptian Ambassador and Permanent Delegate to UNESCO.

H.E. Mr Vadym Omelchenko has twice served as an advisor to Presidents of the Ukrainian Parliament. He also led a group of advisors to the Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister on economic reforms and was a consultant for the parliamentary commission on tackling organised crime and corruption. He has served as Ukraine’s Permanent Delegate to UNESCO since 2020.

During the lunch, the conflict in Ukraine was discussed and the Monegasque authorities reiterated their support for the Ukrainian people, noting that the Principality has, since 2014, called for respect for the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognised borders.