Swiss government names new Ambassadors

Bern, 13.11.2013 - The Swiss government (Federal Council) has approved the list of diplomatic staff transfers scheduled for 2014 submitted by the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs. The changes will be made in accordance with the normal rate of transfers, to be communicated at the time of the decision by the Federal Council. The appointments of Heads of Mission take effect as soon as the authorities in the host country communicate their approval. The Federal Council takes this opportunity to express its gratitude to the Ambassadors due to retire for the services rendered.

The decisions of the Federal Council of 13.11.2013:

Ambassador Nicolas Lang, Ambassador-at-Large for International Humanitarian Law, FDFA Bern, has been confirmed Ambassador in his capacity as organising commissioner of the 32nd Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, due to take place in Geneva in 2015.

Ambassador Hanspeter Mock, currently Deputy Director of the FDFA Directorate of European Affairs in Bern, has been appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Argentina.

Ambassador Beat Nobs, currently Head of the Asia and Pacific Division of the FDFA Directorate of Political Affairs in Bern, has been appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Canada and the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, with residence in Ottawa.

Bernardino Regazzoni, currently Head of Mission in Rome, has been appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the French Republic and the Principality of Monaco, with residence in Paris.

Ambassador Florence Tinguely Mattli has been appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Principality of Liechtenstein with residence in Bern. This will be in addition to her current ambassadorial duties as head of the Europe, Central Asia, Council of Europe, OSCE Division of the FDFA Directorate of Political Affairs.

Counsellor Pio Wennubst, currently Head of Development, Economics, Humanitarian Affairs, Environment at the Permanent Mission of Switzerland to the United Nations in New York, has been appointed Ambassador in his capacity as future Head of the Department of Global Cooperation of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation in Bern. 

Christian Winter, Principal Secretary to the Head of Mission in Pristina, has been appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Sultanate of Oman and Yemen, with residence in Muscat.

At meetings earlier in 2013 the Federal Council made the following decisions:

Rita Adam, currently Deputy Director of the Directorate for International Law, has been appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Tunisia, replacing Ambassador Pierre Combernous who is retiring.

Pascale Baeriswyl, currently Head of the Illicit Assets Recovery Task Force of the Directorate for International Law in Bern, has been appointed Ambassador and Head of the said Directorate.

François Barras, currently Consul General in New York, has been appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Lebanon, replacing Ambassador Ruth Flint who is retiring.

Yvonne Baumann, currently Head of Mission in Santiago de Chile, has been appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Indonesia, the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste and the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), with residence in Jakarta.

Jürg Benz, currently Programme Director at the SDC Cooperation Office in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, has been appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Guatemala, the Republic of El Salvador and, for the first half of 2014, to the Republic of Honduras, with residence in Guatemala City.

Muriel Berset Cohen, currently Head of Mission in Dakar, has been appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria, replacing Ambassador Thomas Feller who is retiring.

Markus Börlin, currently Head of Mission in The Hague, has been appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary and Permanent Representative of Switzerland to the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, replacing Ambassador Charles-Edouard Held who is retiring.

Urs Breiter, currently Head of Mission in Vienna, has been appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Ambassador Gerhard Brügger, currently Head of the Consular Directorate in Bern, has been appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Ghana, the Republic of Benin and the Republic of Togo, with residence in Accra.

Christoph Bubb, currently Head of Mission in Islamabad, has been appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Federal Republic of Austria.

Ambassador Martin Dahinden, currently Head of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) in Bern, has been appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the United States of America.

Jean-Jacques de Dardel, currently Head of Mission in Paris, has been appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the People’s Republic of China, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, and Mongolia, with residence in Beijing.

Edgar Dörig, currently First Secretary to the Head of Mission in Tokyo, has been appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Chile.

Stefan Estermann, currently First Secretary to the Head of Mission in Moscow, has been appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Croatia.

Ambassador Stefan Flückiger, currently Head of the Swiss delegation to the OECD in Paris, has been appointed Ambassador and Head of the Sectoral Foreign Policies Division of the Directorate of Political Affairs in Bern.

Christian Fotsch, currently Head of Mission in Bratislava, has been appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the People’s Republic of Bangladesh.

Pierre-Yves Fux, currently Deputy to the Head of Middle East and North Africa Division of the Directorate of Political Affairs in Bern, has been appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Slovenia as well as to the Holy See, with residence in Ljubljana, replacing the Ambassadors Robert Reich and Paul Widmer who are retiring.

Benedict Gubler, currently Deputy to the Head of the Permanent Representation of Switzerland to the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, has been appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Angola and the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe, with residence in Luanda.

René Holenstein, currently Deputy to the Director for Multilateral Humanitarian Aid, Swiss Humanitarian Aid Unit (SHA) of the SDC in Bern, has been appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Kyrgyz Republic as of November 2013, replacing Ambassador Laurent Guye who is retiring.

Ambassador Giancarlo Kessler, currently Head of the Sectoral Foreign Policies Division of the Directorate of Political Affairs in Bern, has been appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Italy, the Republic of Malta and the Republic of San Marino, with residence in Rome.

Daniel Klingele, currently a member of the diplomatic staff of the Mission of Switzerland to the European Union in Brussels, has been appointed Ambassador and Deputy Head of the Directorate of European Affairs in Bern.

Olaf Kjelsen, currently First Secretary to the Head of Mission in Brussels, has been appointed Ambassador and Head of Cross-Border Cooperation within the Directorate of Political Affairs in Bern.

Denis Knobel, currently Head of Mission in Zagreb, has been appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Bulgaria, replacing Ambassador Regina Escher who is retiring.

Rudolph Knoblauch, currently Head of Mission in Mexico City, has been appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Kingdom of Norway and the Republic of Iceland, with residence in Oslo.

Ambassador Kurt Kunz, currently Deputy Director of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) in Bern, has been appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Colombia, replacing Dora Rapold who is retiring.

Dominik Langenbacher has been Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Federal Republic of Somalia since October 2013, with residence in Nairobi.

Ulrich Lehner, currently Head of Mission in Ottawa, has been appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary and Head of the Swiss Delegation to the Organisation for Economic Development and Cooperation (OECD) in Paris.

Thomas Litscher, currently Head of Mission in Colombo, has been appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso, the Republic of Guinea, the Republic of Liberia and the Republic of Sierra Leone, with residence in Abidjan.

Mirko Manzoni, currently Head of the SDC Cooperation Office in Bamako, has been appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Mozambique.

Johannes Matyassy, currently Head of Mission in Buenos Aires, has been appointed Ambassador and Head of the Asia and Pacific Division of the FDFA Directorate of Political Affairs in Bern.

Heinrich Maurer, currently First Secretary to the Head of Mission in Pretoria, has been appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Marie-Claude Meylan Glasspool, Deputy to the Head of the Middle East and North Africa Division of the Directorate of Political Affairs in Bern, has been appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Ireland as of December 2013, replacing Ambassador Beat Loeliger who is retiring.

Peter Reinhardt, currently Head of Mission in Riyadh, has been appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Cyprus, replacing Ambassador Gabriela Nützi Sulpizio who is retiring.

Manuel Sager, currently Head of Mission in Washington, has been appointed Ambassador and Head of the SDC Cooperation with Eastern Europe division in Bern.

André Schaller, currently Head of Mission in Sarajevo, has been appointed Ambassador and Consul General in New York.

Georg Steiner, currently First Secretary to the Head of Mission in Teheran, has been appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the State of Libya, replacing Ambassador Erwin Hofer who is retiring.

Dagmar Schmidt Tartagli, currently First Secretary to the Head of Mission in Rabat, has been appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Senegal, the Republic of Cabo Verde, the Republic of the Gambia, the Republic of Guinea-Bissau, the Republic of Mali and the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, with residence in Dakar.

Heinrich Schellenberg, currently Consul General in Shanghai, has been appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Andrea Semadeni, Head of Mission in Accra, has been appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, the Republic of Djibouti, the Republic of South Sudan, and Permanent Observer to the African Union and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, effective as of the end of November 2013, with residence in Addis Ababa.

Martin Strub, currently First Secretary to the Head of Mission in New Delhi, has been appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Sudan, and the State of Eritrea, with residence in Khartoum.

Louis-José Touron, currently Head of Mission in Khartoum, has been appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the United Mexican States and Belize, with residence in Mexico City.

Jean-Luc Virchaux, currently Head of the SDC Cooperation Office in Cotonou, has been appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Haiti.

François Voeffray, currently Deputy to the Head of the Sectoral Foreign Policies Division of the Directorate of Political Affairs in Bern, has been appointed Ambassador and Special Envoy for the Application of International Humanitarian Law within the Directorate of International Law.

David Vogelsanger, currently Head of Mission in Abidjan, has been appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to New Zealand, the Cook Islands, the Republic of Fiji, the Independent State of Samoa, the Kingdom of Tonga, and Tuvalu, with residence in Wellington.

Heinz Walker-Nederkoorn, currently Head of Mission in Jakarta, has been appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka and the Republic of the Maldives, with residence in Colombo.

Alexander Wittwer, currently Head of Mission in Tirana, has been appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Slovak Republic.

Nicole Wyrsch has been appointed Ambassador in her current capacity as Special Envoy for Human Rights within the Human Security Division of the Directorate of Political Affairs in Bern, replacing Ambassador Paul Koller who is retiring.


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