NEW PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF GERMANY PRESENTS CREDENTIALS

Biographical Note

NEW PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF GERMANY PRESENTS CREDENTIALS

(Based on information received from the Protocol and Liaison Service.)

Gunter Pleuger, the new Permanent Representative of Germany to the United Nations, today presented his credentials to Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

Before his present appointment, Mr. Pleuger had served as State Secretary in the Federal Foreign Office in Berlin since October 1999.

He began his diplomatic career in 1970 as First Secretary at the Permanent Mission of the then Federal Republic of Germany, a position he held until 1974, when he worked for three years at the European Communities Division of the Federal Foreign Office in Bonn.

He became spokesman and Head of the Press Division of the German Embassy in New Delhi, India, between 1977 and 1979, and later was Minister-Counsellor for Political Affairs from 1988 to 1993 at his country’s Embassy in Washington, DC.

Mr. Pleuger also worked in many divisions in the German Foreign Service, both in Bonn and Berlin, including the European Communities Division and Policy Planning Staff Division.  In 1985, he became Director in charge of Public Information and Liaison with political parties in the Foreign Minister’s Office in Bonn.

In 1993 Mr. Pleuger was appointed Head of Directorate for United Nations Affairs and Coordinator for Human Rights Issues until 1995, and Head of Directorate General for United Nations Affairs, Human Rights and Humanitarian Aid, from 1995 to 1998.

He studied law and political science at the Universities of Cologne and Bonn between 1960 and 1964, and for four years after that he was engaged in legal training.  During that period he also studied at the Ecole Nationale d’Administration in Paris.  In 1969 through 1970, Mr. Pleuger attended Foreign Service training courses in Bonn and Liverpool, United Kingdom.

Married with two daughters, Mr Pleuger was born in Wismar on 25 March 1941.

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