NEW PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF PORTUGAL PRESENTS CREDENTIALS

Biographical Note

NEW PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF PORTUGAL PRESENTS CREDENTIALS

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

João Manuel Guerra Salgueiro, the new Permanent Representative of Portugal to the United Nations, presented his credentials today to Secretary-General Kofi Annan.  Most recently, Mr. Guerra Salgueiro has been Portugal’s Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary in The Hague, Netherlands, since 2002.

Prior to that -- from 1996 to 2002 -- he held a series of senior posts in his country’s Foreign Ministry, including as Executive Secretary for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Lisbon Summit (1996), Director-General for Bilateral Affairs (1997), Director-General for Political Affairs (1998), and Secretary-General (2000).  From 1985 to 1990, he was the Director of the Department of African Affairs at the Ministry.

Mr. Guerra Salgueiro began his 35-year diplomatic career in Portugal’s Foreign Ministry, where, from 1969 to 1972, he served as Attaché and Secretary of Embassy.  Throughout the 1970s, Mr. Guerra Salgueiro served his country as an envoy to a host of other nations, including as the Secretary of Portugal’s Embassy in Sofia, Bulgaria (1974), London (1975-1978), and Pretoria, South Africa (1981).  He was also Chargé d’affaires at the Portuguese Embassy in South Africa (1983-1984), and held that same post at his country’s Embassy in Guinea-Bissau (1979-1980).

In the early and mid-1990s, Mr. Guerra Salgueiro served as Portugal’s top diplomatic representative in several countries, including Cape Verde (1990-1992), and Japan (1993-1995).  In 1992, he served as the Chief of the European Union Monitoring Mission in the former Yugoslavia.

Mr. Guerra Salgueiro attended law school at the University of Lisbon.  He was born on 21 July 1946, and is married and has three children.

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