HE. Mrs. Salima Abdelhak, Ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of the People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria to The Netherlands and the Permanent Representative of Algeria to the Organization for the Prohibition of the Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The Hague. She has presented on January 26, 2022 her letters of credence to His Majesty the King Willem Alexander and her letters of Cabinet to the OPCW Director General, Mr Fernando Arias. She is also the Governor of Algeria to the Common Funds of Commodities (CFC).
Ambassador Salima Abdelhak is a career diplomat. She served as Ambassador to the Republic of Azerbaijan, 2019-2022 .
Before that, she assumed senior positions in the MFA (2009-2019) as Director for Economic Relations and International Cooperation (2018-2019), Director for Multilateral Trade Organizations (2015-2018) and Deputy Director for Cooperation with the multilateral trade organizations and institutions (2010-2014), and Senior Counselor to Minister of Foreign Affairs (2014-2015).
Trade, sustainable development, cooperation and energy are all areas Ambassador Salima Abdelhak dealt with. Involved in many multilateral negotiation processes, she was designated as a negotiator within the national team for the establishment of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), a member of the national committee for the negotiation of Algeria accession to WTO, a member of OPEC drafting committee of OPEC and non OPEC cooperation Charter and a negotiator of the GECF Head of States Declarations.
At the domestic level, Ambassador Abdelhak, coordinated the Algeria Voluntary Review (VNR) on the implementation of SDG’s as the chair of the national committee for the preparation of Algeria VNR and carried out the review of the Strategic Framework of cooperation between Algeria and The United Nations System as chairperson of the committee.
Ambassador Salima Abdelhak served overseas at the permanent mission of Algeria to the United Nations in New York (2005-2009) dealing with humanitarian and Women empowerment issues. Ambassador’s tenure in New York enabled her to acquire a multilateralism profile which promotes cooperation, consultation and inclusiveness and seeks for common interests.
Ambassador Abdelhak holds a Bachelor of Arts in Translation and Interpretation from University of Algiers, a degree in Italian language and culture from the University of Perugia in Italy, and a Master of Arts in Economics from University of Algiers. She also graduated from the Diplomatic Institute in Algiers, Merton College in Oxford (UK), CASIN in Geneva and ENA in Strasbourg.
She is fluent in Arabic, French, English and Italian.
