Bogdan Aurescu is Romania's new Foreign Affairs Minister

Bogdan Aurescu took the oath of office to become Romania’s new Foreign Affairs Minister at a special ceremony on Tuesday at Cotroceni Palace, with Traian Basescu in attendance. On the same occasion, the new Culture Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, Ms. Hegedus Csilla also took the oath of office.

President in charge Traian Basescu signed this week a decree appointing Bogdan-Lucian Aurescu as Foreign Affairs Minister, the Presidential Administration informs. The head of state also signed a decree noting the resignation of Teodor Melescanu from foreign minister and the cessation of his Government membership.

The former minister of Foreign Affairs, Teodor Melescanu, quit his position shortly after the election given the scandal pertaining to the expat vote.

Diplomat Bogdan Lucian Aurescu was born on Sept. 9, 1973 according to MAE. He joined the Ministry in 1996, starting his activity within the Legal and Treaties Directorate, as desk officer. Between 1998 and 2003 he was successively adviser within the Minister’s Cabinet, deputy director of the Legal and Treaties Directorate, director of the Minister’s Cabinet, director of the Legal and Treaties/International Law and Treaties Directorate, director general of the General Department for Legal Affairs.

Between 4 February 2009 and 24 November 2014 he was State Secretary for Strategic Affairs with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. From August 2010 to February 2012, he was Secretary of State for European Affairs and he also coordinated the Security Policies Directorate. Between March 2012 and June 2012, he was Secretary of State for Global Affairs. Since June 2012, he was Secretary of State for Strategic Affairs.

Between 2003 and 2004 he was Under-Secretary of State within the Ministry – Government Agent for the European Court of Human Rights, and between 2004 and 2005 Secretary of State for European Affairs. Since September 2004, Bogdan Aurescu was the Romanian Agent before the International Court of Justice, coordinating – all along the procedures – the activity of the team which represented Romania in the case against Ukraine before the International Court of Justice on Maritime Delimitation in the Black Sea, finalized on 3 February 2009.

Between 2010 and 2011, he was head of the Romanian delegation for the negotiations on the Romanian-American Ballistic Missile Defense Agreement, and of the Joint Declaration on the Strategic Partnership for the 21st Century between Romania and USA. Currently, he has the diplomatic rank of minister-plenipotentiary.

He has a PhD in legal sciences with the qualification „very good” and the distinction “Summa cum Laude”, the title of the PhD thesis being “The Concept of Sovereignty and the Primacy of International Law” (2003). He has finalized a post-doctoral advanced research programme with the qualification “excellent” in the fields of International Law of Human Rights, Humanitarian International Law, Refugees Law and Criminal Law, with the subject “Evolutions in the Relation between State and Individual in the Field of International Law of Human Rights and of the International Protection of Persons belonging to National Minorities” (2011).

He is author, co-author or editor of 13 volumes in the field of International Law, 15 chapters in volumes, 15 studies in volumes of international conferences and of more than 100 articles, studies, comments and book reviews published in Romanian or foreign journals, such as Romanian Journal of International Law, Annals of the University of Bucharest – Law Series, Annuaire Français de Droit International, The International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law, Helsinki Monitor. Security and Human Rights, European Yearbook of Minority Issues, Revue Hellenique de Droit International, Chinese Journal of International Law. As a substitute member (independent expert) of the Venice Commission, he was rapporteur or co-rapporteur for 22 reports, opinions or studies of this body.