Lithuanian president appoints 6 new ambassadors

Under one of the decrees signed earlier this week, Grybauskaitė designated Alfonsas Eidintas, ambassador-at-large at the Foreign Ministry's Information and Public Relations Department, as the new ambassador to Greece as of 3 September. He will fill the position in Athens that has been vacant since Artūras Žurauskas was recalled in mid-2010.

Vytautas Žalys, ambassador-at-large at the Foreign Ministry's Administrative Department, will serve as the ambassador to Canada as of 3 August. Žalys will replace Gintė Bernadeta Damušis in the post.

The president appointed Juozas Bernatonis, currently working in Estonia, to head Lithuania's Embassy to Armenia as of 3 September. Bernatonis will be recalled from Tallinn on 3 September, while the incumbent Ambassador to Armenia Giedrius Apuokas will be recalled from the position as of early September.

Kęstutis Kudzmanas, Lithuania's ambassador to Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan to be recalled as of 6 August, was appointed to head the Embassy in Turkey as of 7 August.

On 9 October, Raimonda Murmokaitė, director of the Foreign Ministry's Department for the United Nations, International Organizations and Human Rights, will assume the position as Lithuania's ambassador to the UN, replacing Dalius Čekuolis in the post.

Under another decree signed earlier this week, the president designated Ambassador to Spain Audra Plepytė-Jara to work as Lithuania's permanent representative at the UN World Tourism Organization.

The presidential degrees also envisage recall of Petras Šimeliūnas from the ambassadorial position to India and Bangladesh as of 14 September, Algimantas Rimkūnas from Portugal as of 8 October and Edminas Bagdonas from Belarus as of 23 July.