By Alexander W. Beelaerts van Blokland..
The Hague welcomes six new ambassadors in September.
In daily life I (age 65) am still a Justice (judge) in the (Dutch) Court of Appeal, but in 2004 the Mayor of The Hague appointed me also (voluntary) ‘City Consul of The Hague’ and in 2011 (also voluntary) ‘Special Advisor International Cultural Affairs’, in which functions from that time onwards I am active in the world of diplomacy and international courts and institutions in The Hague. I think that I will write about that world and about The Hague itself. This very first time I will write only about several new ambassadors.
The King is back in The Hague and in September he received six new ambassadors that offered their credentials to him: on September 4th the new ambassadors of Libya, Denmark and Vietnam and on September 11th those of Bolivia, Sudan and the United Kingdom. Who are they ?
The new ambassador of Libya, H.E. Breik A. Swessi (1946), has been active in the Libyan opposition for a long time. He studied in the USA and worked there since 1984 in different organizations. From 2005 he was chairman of the ‘National Conference of the Libyan Opposition’ which he combined with working for different magazines.
H.E. Ole E. Moesby (1953) from Denmark worked all his life as a diplomat: in Tanzania, Egypt and New York and was ambassador in Zimbabwe, the CzechRepublic and Pakistan.
Vietnam’s new ambassador H.E. Nguyen Van Doan (1959) studied Arabic in Iraq, where he worked as an interpreter before he started his diplomatic career. The Hague is his first post as ambassador.
Bolivia’s new ambassador H.E. Eduardo Rodríguez Veltzé (1956) is a lawyer with many other activities. He was President of the Supreme Court of Bolivia and in 2005-2006 President of the Republic Bolivia. The Hague is his first post as an ambassador.
H.E. Mohamed E.I.A. Hassan (1959) is the new ambassador of Sudan, also a lawyer who changed his career into diplomacy in 1990. From 1998 to 2002 he already worked at the embassy in The Hague, that now is his first post as ambassador.
H.E. Sir Geoffrey Doyne Adams (1957) is the new ambassador of the United Kingdom. He studied Islamic History and Middle East Politics in Oxford and at ENA in Paris. He worked as a diplomat in Jeddah, Pretoria, Cairo and Jerusalem and was ambassador in Teheran, after which he worked in the top of the British Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Gentlemen: you are most welcome in The Hague !
