Above: Ambassadors H.E. Nicolás Lloreda-Ricaurte of Colombia to Canada; H.E. Kenjiro Monji of Japan to Canada; and H.E. Kārlis Eihenbaums discuss Canada’s role in the global landscape in a panel moderated by Ambassador Rolf Holmboe, former ambassador of Denmark to Lebanon, Syria and Jordan at our conference, “Canada’s Defence Policy Review: The Geopolitical Context 2020-2050” held on January 31, 2017 at the Royal Canadian Military Institute.
His Excellency Nicolás Lloreda-Ricaurte has served as Ambassador of Colombia to Canada since February 14, 2013. Previously, he served as Deputy Chief of Mission of the Embassy of Colombia in Washington, D.C. Between 2001 and 2010, he practiced law at firms Crowell & Moring (2010) and Sidley & Austin (2001-2010) in Washington, where he focused his practice on international business transactions, trade and investment policy and international arbitration. Ambassador Lloreda also served as Director General of the Andean Community (1997-2000), the Free Trade area comprising the Andean countries, based in Lime, Peru. His trade negotiations experience includes leading the legal team for the trade talks with Brazil and Argentina, as well as participating in the negotiations for the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). Earlier, Ambassador Lloreda spent four years with the Colombian Government Trade Bureau in Washington, D.C. (1993-1997), where he served as Director of the Trade Bureau and Minister Counsellor of the Colombian Embassy and was responsible for trade negotiations between Colombia and the United States. In 2010, he was appointed by the Government of Colombia as an arbitrator before the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Dispute (ICSID).
His Excellency Kenjiro Monji was born in Kitakyushu, Fukuoka in 1952. After graduating from the Faculty of Law at Tokyo University, he entered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1975. In his career, he has served mainly in the areas of treaties, national security and cultural exchange. He has worked overseas in France, Australia, Belgium, the United Kingdom and in the mission of Japan to the European Union. After holding posts in Tokyo as Deputy Director-General of the Treaties Bureau and as Director-General for International Affairs at the Ministry of Defence, he served as Ambassador to Iraq (2007), Director-General for Public Diplomacy at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2008), Ambassador to Qatar (2010) and Ambassador, Permanent Delegate of Japan to UNESCO (2013). He started his assignment as Ambassador of Japan to Canada in April 2015. Having been awarded the title of Sake Samurai by the Japan Sake Brewers Association Junior Council, Ambassador Monji also promotes Japanese sake overseas.
In August 2016, His Excellency Kārlis Eihenbaums began his posting as Latvia’s Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Canada. Previously, he served as Ambassador-at-Large at the Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Head of the Delegation of Latvia to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) from February 2015 to August 2016. From October 2013 to February 2015, he was Press Secretary of the Latvian Foreign Ministry. Ambassador Eihenbaums began working for the Latvian Foreign Ministry as Director of the Western Europe Department (1993). He served as First-Secretary at the Embassy of Latvia in London (1993-1996) and the Foreign Policy Adviser to Latvia’s President Guntis Ulmanis (1996-1998). Ambassador Eihenbaums was responsible for establishing the Latvian Embassy in the Kingdom of the Netherlands, where he was Counselor, and subsequently became Latvia’s Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary (1999-2003). He was the first Permanent Representative of Latvia accredited to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The Hague. He served as the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Latvia to the State of Israel (2004-2008) and to the Republic of Estonia (2008-2013). Ambassador Eihenbaums is the recipient of various national honours and orders of merit, both from Latvia and other countries, including Latvia’s highest order of merit: the “Three Star Order” in 2013 for his contributions to the promotion of Latvia’s diplomatic relations, and the Latvian Cabinet of Ministers Certificate of Merit in 2008. In 2009, he received the Estonian Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana. In 2003, he was awarded the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Orange-Nassau of the Netherlands and in 1997, he was decorated with France’s National Order of the Legion of Honour. Ambassador Eihenbaums is also Commander of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic and a member of the National Order of Merit of Malta.
Ambassador Rolf Holmboe is on temporary leave from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, living in Ottawa and working as a Research Fellow at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute (CGAI). He served as Ambassador of Denmark to Lebanon (2013-2015) and as Ambassador to Syria and Jordan (2012-2015). Previously, he served as Director of Strategy and Policy Planning at the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He has dealt extensively with combined political and development interventions in fragile states, also as head of department for stabilisation, which included comprehensive work with all military, political and developmental aspects of Denmark’s engagement in Afghanistan and in Helmand, for building a new Danish civil-military comprehensive approach and for guiding policies for Danish interventions in fragile states. Previously, he served for four years as Denmark’s representative to the Palestinian Authority as well as to UNRWA – the UN Organisation for Palestine Refugees – with overall responsibility for political relations as well as for Danish development and other interventions in the West Bank and Gaza. He has been responsible for developing and implementing economic and political stabilisation programmes under Denmark’s Neighbourhood Programme, in Russian, the Balkans and in the Caucasus, and was responsible for Danish programmes on the Horn of Africa and earlier in West Africa. As an army reserve officer, Ambassador Holmboe has participated in several missions of longer and shorter duration in conflict zones as well as an arms control inspector under the CFE Treaty. Until 2016, he served as commander of a reserve specialist corps providing linguistic and area knowledge expertise to Danish military missions abroad. As an external lecturer, he has taught conflict studies in fragile states at the Institute of Political Science, Copenhagen University, and he has written several articles on the subject. He holds a Mater’s Degree in Political Science and a Supplementary Degree in Arabic Studies from Aarhus University.
