On Thursday, November 3, Gilles Tonelli, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, received HE Mr Sihasak Phuangketkeow, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Kingdom of Thailand; HE Ms. Aichetou Me Haiham Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Mauritania, HE Mr. George Karolyi, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Hungary, who presented, in the morning, their letters of appointment to HSH the Sovereign Prince.
Following this interview, an official lunch, chaired by Mr Tonelli, was held at the Hotel Hermitage.
HE Mr. Sihasak Phuangketkeow began his diplomatic career in 1979 at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE). He then joined the Embassy in Washington and was appointed to the Department of Political Affairs. In 1999 he became Deputy Director General of Southeast Asia Affairs and held the position of Managing Director
Department of Information from 2002 to 2004. He was also Consul General in Hong Kong, Ambassador Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva, and Ambassador of Thailand to Japan.
After a period? in the Department of Education and at the Ecole Normale Supérieure, HE Ms Aichetou M’Haiham was appointed Secretary of State for the Status of Women in 1997. In 1998, she became president of a National NGO for the promotion of women in rural areas. From 2005, she successively occupied the posts of Adviser to the Presidency of the Republic, in charge of Cultural and Social Affairs, deputy Commissioner for Food Security and the Commissioner for Human Rights and Humanitarian Action.
Attaché to the Commercial Department of the National Industrial Aerospace, in service contracts sale of the Concorde aircraft in 1971, HE Mr Georges Karolyi integrated the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in 1974 as Chief of Staff of the Director General before becoming responsible for Studies and Research in Directorate
Studies. He joined the Fiat company in Paris in 1978 where he held the post of Assistant to CEO then the Director of the Company’s Controlling. He is the founder of the Joseph Karolyi foundation, an organisation to promote the European opening of Hungary.