Mary Patricia Thurston is a career diplomat with the country of New Zealand. [1] [2]
From 2016 to 2021, she was the ambassador of New Zealand to Poland. [3] [4] Via this office, she was also ambassador to Estonia, Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Ukraine. [5] [6]
Thurston attended Oxford University where she studied English and French for a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) degree. She speaks French, Spanish and Solomon Islands Pijin. [6]
Thurston was previously Deputy High Commissioner at the New Zealand High Commission Singapore and Deputy Special Coordinator of the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI). [7]
Fiji has experienced many coups recently, in 1987, 2000, and 2006. Fiji has been suspended various times from the Commonwealth of Nations, a grouping of mostly former British colonies. It was readmitted to the Commonwealth in December 2001, following the parliamentary election held to restore democracy in September that year, and has been suspended again because of the 2006 coup, but has been readmitted a second time after the 2014 election. Other Pacific Island governments have generally been sympathetic to Fiji's internal political problems and have declined to take public positions.
The foreign relations of New Zealand are oriented chiefly toward developed democratic nations and emerging Pacific Island economies. Until the late 20th century, New Zealand aligned itself strongly with the United Kingdom and had few bilateral relationships with other countries. From the latter half of the 20th century, Australia has been New Zealand's most important cultural, economic and military partner. Today, the country participates in several multilateral political organisations, including Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, the Pacific Community, and the Pacific Islands Forum. New Zealand has been described as an emerging power; however, such a claim needs to be considered in the context of its medium-sized economy and limited military capability. The country's major political parties have generally agreed on the broad outlines of foreign policy, and the government has been active in promoting free trade, nuclear disarmament, and arms control.
The foreign policy of Solomon Islands as of 2008 was described by the Solomon Islands government as a "look north" policy, aimed as strengthening diplomatic and economic relations with Asian countries for development purposes.
Gerard Anthony Brownlee is a New Zealand politician of the New Zealand National Party. He has been a Member of Parliament since 1996, was Leader of the House, Minister for Canterbury Earthquake Recovery and Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Fifth National Government, and served as his party's deputy leader from November 2003 until November 2006, and again from July until November 2020.
Nanaia Cybele Mahuta is a New Zealand Labour Party politician who is the Member of Parliament (MP) for Hauraki-Waikato and Minister of Foreign Affairs since 2020.
Radosław Tomasz "Radek" Sikorski is a Polish politician and journalist who is a Member of the European Parliament. He was Marshal of the Sejm from 2014 to 2015 and Minister of Foreign Affairs in Donald Tusk's cabinet between 2007 and 2014. He previously served as Deputy Minister of National Defense (1992) in Jan Olszewski's cabinet, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs (1998–2001) in Jerzy Buzek's cabinet and Minister of National Defense (2005–2007) in the cabinets of Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz and Jarosław Kaczyński.
Rosemary Banks is a New Zealand diplomat who served as the Ambassador of New Zealand to the United States between 2018 and 2022. She is the first woman to hold the position.
Poland–Ukraine relations revived on an international basis soon after Ukraine gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Various controversies from the shared history of the two countries' peoples occasionally resurface in Polish–Ukrainian relations, but they tend not to have a major influence on the bilateral relations of Poland and Ukraine.
Polish–Turkish relations are the foreign relations between Poland and Turkey. Both countries are full members of NATO, OECD, OSCE, the Union for the Mediterranean, the Council of Europe and the World Trade Organisation. Poland and Turkey share many similarities in their cultural history and cuisine and generally relations are cordial. Poland is a member of the European Union, Turkey is not a member.
Ingrida Šimonytė is a Lithuanian politician and economist who is the Prime Minister of Lithuania since 11 December 2020. She has been a Member of the Seimas of Antakalnis constituency since 2016 and was Minister of Finance in the second Kubilius cabinet from 2009 until 2012. Šimonytė was a candidate in the 2019 presidential election, but lost in the second round runoff to Gitanas Nausėda. She is a member of Homeland Union. She is considered one of strongest politicians in modern Lithuania.
Monika Kapil Mohta is a diplomat of the Indian Foreign Service, who served as the Ambassador of India to Switzerland since August 2020. She holds the rank of Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs and was previously the Ambassador of India to Sweden and Latvia and the Ambassador of India to Poland and Lithuania.
Vadym Volodymyrovych Prystaiko is a Ukrainian diplomat currently serving as Ukraine's ambassador to the United Kingdom. He was appointed by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on 20 July 2020.
Dmytro Ivanovych Kuleba is a Ukrainian politician, diplomat, and communications specialist, currently serving as Minister of Foreign Affairs. He is also concurrently a member of the National Defense and Security Council of Ukraine.
Julie D. Fisher is an American diplomat who has served as the United States ambassador to Cyprus since February 2023. She previously served as the United States ambassador to Belarus from 2020 to 2022.
The Lublin Triangle is a regional alliance of three European countries – Lithuania, Poland, and Ukraine – for the purposes of strengthening mutual military, cultural, economic and political cooperation and supporting Ukraine's integration into the European Union and NATO. The Lublin Triangle initiative invokes the integrative heritage of the 1569 Union of Lublin.
The Bucharest Nine or the Bucharest Format is an organization founded on 4 November 2015 in Bucharest, Romania, at the initiative of the President of Romania Klaus Iohannis and the President of Poland Andrzej Duda during a bilateral meeting between them. Its members are Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. Its appearance was mainly a result of a perceived aggressive attitude from Russia following the annexation of Crimea from Ukraine and its posterior intervention in eastern Ukraine both in 2014. All members of the B9 were either part of the former Soviet Union (USSR) or members of the defunct Soviet-led Warsaw Pact.
New Zealand–Ukraine relations are the foreign relations between New Zealand and Ukraine. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, New Zealand formally established diplomatic relations with Ukraine in March 1992. The two countries subsequently expanded diplomatic contacts and economic relations over the next three decades. Following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, New Zealand supported Ukraine by condemning Russia's actions and providing diplomatic and military assistance.