Diplomacy: accreditation of new ambassadors Slovakia – Venezuela – Romania – Belgium

De gauche à droite : S.E. M. Jo INDEKEU, Ambassadeur Extraordinaire et Plénipotentiaire de Belgique. S.E. Mme Ioana BIVOLARU, Ambassadrice Extraordinaire et Plénipotentiaire de Roumanie, Mme Isabelle BERRO AMADEÏ, Conseiller de Gouvernement Ministre des Relations Extérieures et de la Coopération, S.E. M. Jan SOTH, Ambassadeur Extraordinaire et Plénipotentiaire de la République slovaque et S.E. M. Arturo Enrique GIL PINTO, Ambassadeur Extraordinaire et Plénipotentiaire de la République bolivarienne du Venezuela. © Manuel Vitali – Direction de la Communication

On Tuesday 12 March, Ms Isabelle Berro-Amadeï, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, received H.E. Mr Jan Soth, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Slovak Republic; H.E. Mr Arturo Enrique Gil Pinto, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela; H.E. Ms Ioana Bivolaru, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Romania, and H.E. Mr Jo Indekeu, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Belgium at a lunch held at the Hôtel Hermitage.

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

H.E. Mr Jan SOTH is a graduate of the MGIMO School of International Relations in Moscow and began his career at the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Czechoslovakia in Prague in 1984. In 1993 he was appointed First Secretary Deputy Head of Mission at the Embassy of the Slovak Republic in Romania in Bucharest before becoming Director of the Europe Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Slovak Republic in Bratislava. In 1995, he was named Diplomatic Adviser Deputy Head of Mission at the Embassy of the Slovak Republic in Paris, France, a post he held until 1999. Ambassador of the Slovak Republic to Romania and Moldova from 2002 to 2007, as well as to Italy, Malta and the Republic of San Marino from 2015 to 2021, he has also held the position of Secretary General of the Cabinet of the President of the Slovak Republic from 2012 to 2015.

H.E. Mr Arturo Enrique Gil Pinto holds a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from the Universidad Central de Venezuela and a PhD in automation and microelectronics from the Université de Sciences et Techniques du Languedoc-Montpellier and has extensive experience in the field of engineering. Deputy Minister of Infrastructure Management at the Ministry of Transport and Communications from 2010 to 2012, he has also been a professor at the Universidad Central de Venezuela since 1998. In 2018 he was appointed as Ad Hoc Chargé d’Affaires for the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to the Republic of Korea, a post he held until 2023.

A graduate of the Faculty of Letters of the University of Bucharest and the National School of Political and Administrative Studies of Bucharest, H.E. Ms. Ioana Bivolaru also holds a master’s degree in European Political and Administrative Studies from the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium. A career diplomat, she has over 25 years of experience in the field of European affairs. She was a member of the national delegation for negotiations for Romania’s Accession to the European Union (2001-2003) and part of the national team that contributed to the negotiation and drafting of the Accession Treaty of Romania to the European Union (2005-2006).

As a diplomat, she has carried out several missions at the Embassies of Romania in Rome, The Hague, Helsinki, and, between 2007 and 2012, at the Permanent Representation of Romania to the European Union in Brussels. She was also Director General of the European Union Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 2012 to 2016. From 2016 to 2023, she was the Ambassador of Romania to Portugal.

H.E. Mr. Jo Indekeu holds a master’s degree in Notarial Studies and International Politics. He joined the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1991 before being assigned to multiple Embassy missions in Austria, Turkey and Poland. From 2003 to 2007, he was Chief of Staff to the Secretary-General of the Belgian minister of Foreign Affairs. In 2007, he was appointed as Belgium’s Ambassador to Jordan in Amman and accredited in Iraq. Four years later he became Belgium’s Ambassador to Hungary in Budapest. Between 2015 and 2019, he served as Director of the Eastern and South-Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia department and, in 2019, was appointed Ambassador of Belgium to the Democratic Republic of Congo in Kinshasa.