The Washington Diplomat

St. Lucia's former ambassador to the United States, Joseph Edsel Edmunds, displays his acrylic paintings at Art Impact USA’s first annual International 2016 Art Exhibition in Washington DC. Edmunds, 89, died July 21. (Photo by Larry Luxner)

As the conflict between Israel and Hamas rages on in the beleaguered Gaza Strip, with a ceasefire proving to be elusive, Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian Authority’s ambassador to the United Nations, advocates for his people and their plight from his perch in New York.

The Biden administration just made a worthy pledge: “The United States is committed to sustaining critical investments in the fundamentals of thriving societies,” the White House stated a few days ago in its U.S. Strategy on Global Development, which received no news coverage.

The Hirshhorn’s new 50th-anniversary celebration rethinks and revitalizes the museum’s permanent collection in a dizzying, must-see show.

Evangelos Savva, the Cypriot ambassador in Washington, reflects on 50 years of Turkish occupation.

Washington’s newest crop of ambassadors includes five women, two diplomats who have previously served here, and one son of a former ambassador. They represent a variety of countries ranging from the world’s most populous, India, with just over 1.45 billion inhabitants, to one of its smallest—tropical Barbados—with only 282,000.

Sweden’s Jan Eliasson is one of the most skilled and respected diplomats of his generation who soared through the ranks of Swedish diplomacy.

Against the backdrop of 16 huge photographs depicting the architectural splendor of Kyiv, some 200 dignitaries gathered Oct. 22 at the Italian Embassy here in advance of a July 2025 meeting in Rome to finance the rebuilding of Ukraine—even as its devastating war against Russia rages on.

Croatian Ambassador Pjer Šimunović (Photo by The Washington Diplomat)

A few ambassadors offered their thoughts on collaborative investment for growth at the Meridian International Center’s Shaping Geopolitical Futures Summit on the morning of Oct. 18. Later that evening, more than a few ambassadors offered up their residences and embassies for the Meridian International Center’s popular annual ball so that revelers could take a break from the heavy talk that dominates Washington, D.C.