NEW PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF ICELAND PRESENTS CREDENTIALS

Biographical Note

NEW PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF ICELAND PRESENTS CREDENTIALS

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

Hjalmar W. Hannesson, the new Permanent Representative of Iceland to the United Nations, today presented his credentials to Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

Before his current appointment, Mr. Hannesson had served since 2001, as Ambassador to Canada and simultaneously to Colombia, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Peru and Venezuela.  He was Ambassador to the Holy See from 1999 to 2002, also serving as Political Director and Deputy Permanent Secretary of State in Iceland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs between 1998 and 2001.  From 1995 to 1998, he served as Ambassador to China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Viet Nam, Indonesia, Thailand and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.  He was Ambassador to Germany from 1989 to 1995 as well as to Switzerland, Austria, Greece, German Democratic Republic, Hungary and Liechtenstein.

Between 1976 and 1990, Mr. Hannesson held several positions in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and served on Iceland’s delegation to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE).

Mr. Hannesson was educated at the Icelandic Teachers College and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the United States.

He is married with three children.

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