Larry Luxner
On March 30, Croatian Ambassador Pjer Šimunović hosted a launch party for Ari Mittleman’s new book, “Paths of the Righteous: Stories of Heroism, Humanity and Hope.”
The Washington Diplomat’s Ambassador Insider Series resumed after a two-year hiatus with our March 30 event featuring Koji Tomita, Japan’s ambassador to the United States—just as the Japanese cherry blossoms bloomed in the nation’s capital.
David Mirejovsky and Jan Kaliba have covered it all—from the chaotic US presidential election of 2020 to the 17-year life cycle of cicadas. Both journalists spoke at a March 22 event titled “America Through the Eyes of Czech Foreign Correspondents.”
Moldova, which for years has vied with Ukraine for the unenviable title of “poorest country in Europe,” now has a more urgent concern: the potentially horror of a Russian invasion if Vladimir Putin gets his way in Ukraine.
Jaime Daremblum, Costa Rica’s ambassador to the United States from 1998 to 2004, died Feb. 26 at the age of 81.
Lianys Torres Rivera, Cuba’s ambassador in Washington, rails against the US trade embargo, which turned 60 last month.
On March 1, the Center for European Policy Analysis asked the ambassadors of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia how they’re helping Ukraine confront the Kremlin threat while ensuring that their own countries won’t be next on Putin’s hit list.
St. Kitts & Nevis—barely twice the size of the District of Columbia—is the smallest independent sovereign nation in the Western Hemisphere. Representing this tiny twin-island Caribbean federation in Washington is Ambassador Thelma Phillip-Browne, a doctor by profession who’s also an evangelist preacher and one of her country’s all-time champions in netball.
As much as Turkey would like to stay out of the current Russian bloodbath engulfing Ukraine, it can no longer remain neutral—a geopolitical reality acknowledged by Ankara’s ambassador in Washington, Hasan Murat Mercan.
When Nureldin Mohamed Hamed Satti arrived in Washington back in July 2020, he was welcomed as Khartoum’s first ambassador to the United States in 23 years. Yet Satti’s mission proved to be short-lived. On Jan. 31, the 75-year-old former UN official was forced to resign after a military coup back home plunged Sudan into a political and humanitarian crisis.
The current state of US-China relations is the worst since Nixon’s landmark trip to Beijing 50 years ago, says a prominent China scholar.
Guatemala, Central America’s largest nation, often makes headlines, though nearly always for the wrong reasons—violent crime, drug trafficking, natural disasters and illegal immigration. When it comes to uncovering ancient civilizations, however, Guatemala is a world leader.
As Russia masses more than 100,000 troops on its border with Ukraine and the threat of an invasion dominates world headlines, experts ponder what Vladimir Putin really has up his sleeve.
Ambassador Rufus Gifford, the State Department’s new chief of protocol, has been on the job for barely three weeks. But he’s already made history as the first openly gay diplomat ever to hold that title.
The last three months of 2021 saw the departure of nine foreign ambassadors to the United States.