Diplomacy: accreditation of new ambassadors from Timor-Leste – Philippines – Norway – Bulgaria

©Direction de la Communication/Manuel Vitali

On Tuesday 26 April, at a lunch held at the Hotel Hermitage, Isabelle Berro-Amadeï, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, received H.E. Ms Maria de Lurdes Bessa, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste; H.E. Ms Junever M. Mahilum-West, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of the Philippines; H.E. Mr Niels Engelschion, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Kingdom of Norway; and H.E. Mr Nikolay Milkov, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Bulgaria.

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

H.E. Ms Maria de Lurdes Bessa began her diplomatic career in 2001 at Timor-Leste’s Embassy in Portugal, before serving in the United States until 2012. She is currently Timor-Leste’s Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Switzerland and Permanent Representative to the Office of the United Nations and other international organisations in Geneva.

H.E. Ms Junever M. Mahilum-West joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs when she took up post as Deputy Secretary for the Office of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Affairs. She was subsequently appointed Director-General of the ASEAN-Philippines National Secretariat and is currently the Philippines’ Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to France, Jordan and Palestine.

In 2002, H.E. Mr Niels Engelschion joined the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs where, in 2015, he became Deputy Director-General and subsequently Director-General of the Department for European Affairs and International Trade. He served as Norway’s Ambassador to Belgium from 2011 to 2015, and has been the Norwegian Ambassador to France since 2021.

H.E. Mr Nikolay Milkov, who has a PhD in International Relations, held a number of different posts within the Bulgarian Ministry of Defence from 1992 onwards. In 2001, he embarked on a diplomatic career and became the Bulgarian Ambassador to first Romania and then Canada in 2013. Since 2021, he has served as the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to France, Permanent Representative to UNESCO and Personal Representative of the Head of State to the International Organisation of La Francophonie (OIF).