Susanne Fries-Gaier (born July 5, 1968) is a German diplomat. From August 2021 to July 2024, she was Deputy Head of the Crisis Prevention, Stabilization, Peacebuilding and Humanitarian Aid Division and Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid at the Federal Foreign Office. In August 2024, she traveled to Chile as Ambassador-designate to take over as head of the Embassy in Santiago. [1]
Fries-Gaier studied at the German Foreign Service Academy, from which she graduated in 1991 with a Bachelor of Arts in Public Administration. During her first diplomatic assignments abroad, she studied Political Science at the Open University of Hagen. She is married to the retired German diplomat Achim Gaier. The couple has three children.
In 2001, she joined the training program for the Senior Foreign Service. From 2003 to 2006, she worked as a desk officer for Chinese Domestic policy at the Embassy in Beijing. This was followed by a posting in the Department for Global Affairs and the United Nations at the Federal Foreign Office from 2006 to 2008. Until 2010, she moved to the Human resources Division at the German Foreign Office headquarters.
In July 2010, Fries-Gaier was transferred to the Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York. She served there until summer 2013 as a Counsellor in the Political Section. Back at the Federal Foreign Office, she was appointed Deputy Head of Division for UN Affairs until summer 2017.
She then moved to the Permanent Mission to the United Nations in Geneva for a year as Head of the Political Section. From there, she was transferred to the Federal Chancellery in summer 2018, where she became Head of the section for the United Nations, Global Issues, Sub-Saharan Africa and Sahel. [2]
Back at the German Foreign Office in August 2021, she was appointed Deputy Head of the Crisis Prevention, Stabilization, Peacebuilding and Humanitarian Aid Division and Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid at the Federal Foreign Office. [3] [4] On June 5, 2024, the Federal Cabinet decided to appoint Fries-Gaier as Ambassador to Chile. [5]
Fries-Gaier is a member of the German Council on Foreign Relations. [6]
The Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) is a Central European country and member of the European Union, G4, G7, the G20, the Organizations for Economic Co-operation and Development and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). It maintains a network of 229 diplomatic missions abroad and holds relations with more than 190 countries. As one of the world's leading industrialized countries it is recognized as a major power in European and global affairs.
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Rüdiger König, is a German diplomat who served as the Permanent Representative of Germany to NATO from 2020 until 2023.
Germany–Somalia relations have intensified since 2012 after the political and security situation in Somalia improved, according to information from the German Foreign Office. Germany has not had an ambassador to Somalia since 1989, and the German Ambassador in Nairobi is responsible for relations with Somalia instead.
German-Uganda relations have existed since 1962 and are described by the German Foreign Office as "positive". Uganda is one of the priority countries of German development aid and more than 100 associations and initiatives from Germany support humanitarian projects in Uganda.
Germany–South Sudan relations have existed since the independence of South Sudan in 2011. In the context of the civil war in South Sudan, the Federal Republic of Germany became an important donor of humanitarian aid to South Sudan.
Germany–Mali relations gained depth and intensity in the 2010s as the German government stepped up its efforts to stabilize the Sahel region, and there were an increasing number of bilateral state visits. Germany is also increasingly engaged in security policy in Mali.
Germany–Tajikistan relations are the diplomatic relations between Tajikistan and Germany.
Antje Leendertse is a German diplomat. She has been Permanent Representative of Germany to the United Nations since September 2021. She was Political Director at the Federal Foreign Office from April 2018 to February 2019, then State Secretary at the Federal Foreign Office under Minister Heiko Maas until mid-2021.
Miguel Berger is a German diplomat and has been German Ambassador to the United Kingdom in London since May 2022. He was State Secretary at the Federal Foreign Office from 2020 to 2021.