Biographical Note

NEW PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF CROATIA PRESENTS CREDENTIALS

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

Vladimir Drobnjak, the new Permanent Representative of Croatia to the United Nations, presented his credentials today to Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

From 2000 to the present, Mr. Drobnjak was Head of the Croatian Mission to the European Communities.  Additionally, from 2002 to the present, he simultaneously served as Chairman of both the Third Working Table of the Stability Pact for South-Eastern Europe and the Regional Steering Group for Small Arms and Light Weapons.  Prior to that, from 2000 to 2001, he was a member of Croatia’s negotiating team for the Stabilization and Association Agreement with the European Union.

He has also held the following diplomatic and political posts:  National Coordinator for the Stability Pact for South-Eastern Europe (1999-2000); Assistant Minister in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Head of the Division for Multilateral Affairs (1997-2000); and Deputy Permanent Representative of Croatia to the United Nations (1992-1997).

As a journalist, from 1988 to 1992, Mr. Drobnjak served as a New York-based correspondent, covering the United Nations and the United States, for Croatian Radio and Television, as well as two Croatian dailies.  Prior to that, from 1980 to 1988, he worked for Vjesnik, a Croatian newspaper, where he rose to become Editor-in-Chief of the Sunday edition.

Mr. Drobnjak received his Juris Doctorate (JD) from the University of Zagreb in 1980.

Born in Zagreb on 5 March 1956, he is married with one son.

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