NEW PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF AUSTRIA PRESENTS CREDENTIALS TO DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF UNITED NATIONS OFFICE AT GENEVA

Thomas Hajnoczi, the new Permanent Representative of Austria to the United Nations Office at Geneva, today presented his credentials to Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva.

Prior to his appointment to Geneva, Mr. Hajnoczi was the Permanent Representative of Austria to the Council of Europe, a post he held since January 2009. Between 2003 and 2008 he was the Director for International Security Policy, the European Union’s Common Foreign and Security Policy and also Policy Planning at the Austrian Ministry for Foreign Affairs. Mr. Hajnoczi served as Austria’s Ambassador to Norway from 1999 to 2003, before which he worked as the Head of Department for Disarmament, Arms Council and Nuclear Affairs at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Vienna. In 1994 Mr. Hajnoczi undertook a tour of duty to Guatemala, where he was the Head of Mission at the Austrian Embassy. He held the position of Deputy Permanent Representative of Austria to the United Nations in New York from 1989 to 1994.

Between 1986 and 1989 Mr. Hajnoczi was in Vienna to work at the Foreign Ministry’s Department for International Organizations. He undertook two other overseas tours; in Norway, where he was First Secretary at the Austrian Embassy in Oslo between 1982 and 1986; and in Hungary from 1980 to 1982 where he was also the First Secretary at the Embassy in Budapest.

Mr. Hajnoczi began his diplomatic career in 1978 working in the field of Disarmament at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, specifically in East-West Relations and the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe. He has a Doctorate in Law from the University of Vienna, and also studied at the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna in 1977. Born on 22 August 1955, Mr. Hajnoczi is married and has three children.


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CR13/009E