By Baron Henri Estramant
The Indonesian Ambassador to the Netherlands, Her Excellency Retno Marsudi, was appointed yesterday by the new President of Indonesia Joko Widodo as the first female Minister of Foreign Affairs in her country. Ambassador Marsudi contributed to improve and enlarge the relations between Indonesia and The Netherlands notably in the political and commercial sector by supporting large delegations to visit Indonesia notably Primer Minister Rutte and Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Lilianne Ploumen.
Ambassador Marsudi is one of eight women due to form the new Indonesian cabinet. She is a career diplomat, having served before The Netherlands as ambassador to the Kingdom of Norway as well as the Foreign Ministry’s Director-General for the Americas and Europe.
Retno Marsudi holds a degree in International Relations from Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta in Java. Her husband is an architect.
She is well-versed in European and Dutch institutions but is likely to focus a lot on Sino-Indonesian relations due to the PRC’s increasing assertiveness of the South China Sea.
Ambassador Marsudi presented her credentials to former Queen Beatrix on 25 January 2012.
