No: 309, 16 December 2015

Ambassador Tacan İldem, currently serving as the Permanent Representative of the Republic of Turkey to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), has been selected for the post of NATO Assistant Secretary General for Public Diplomacy.

With the selection of Ambassador İldem, a member of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Turkey will assume once again the post of NATO Assistant Secretary General after an interval of two years. In line with the importance we attach to a fair and balanced allocation of high level NATO posts among the Allied countries, we welcome the appointment of Ambassador İldem to the aforementioned post.

NATO Assistant Secretary General for Public Diplomacy plays a key role in developing public diplomacy strategies of the Alliance and monitoring public diplomacy policies of the Allied and partner countries. Public diplomacy is also essential to gain the support of the public opinion for the operations and policies of the Alliance and to ensure a true perception of NATO’s activities.

The fact that NATO will benefit from the experiences of Ambassador İldem in his capacity as Assistant Secretary General will be another concrete manifestation of the importance that Turkey attaches to the Alliance and of its contributions.