By SAMMY JULIAN
Manila News Bureau Chief
MANILA – Denmark has appointed a new, full-time ambassador to the Philippines scheduled to arrive on August 1 to oversee the re-opening of the Danish embassy in Manila.
Denmark’s non-resident Ambassador to the Philippines Nicolai Ruge based in Kuala Lumpur said Jan Top Christensen will take over his position full-time, allowing him to focus on Malaysia.
Christensen had served as ambassador to Lebanon and briefly to Saudi Arabia, and had been posted to Denmark’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York.
He was also stationed in the Philippines in the 1980s working for the United Nations’ UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
According to Ambassador Ruge, as part of a major reorganization of the Danish Foreign Service, the government of Denmark has decided to re-open a full-fledged Embassy in Manila.
Denmark and the Philippines have had diplomatic relations since 1946, and there was a Danish Consulate in Manila as early as the 18th century.
Denmark also established an embassy in Manila in 1979.
However, due to major cost-cutting introduced by then new Danish government, 10 embassies around the world including the one in Manila, were terminated.
“Most, if not all, have since been reopened and it is only natural that Denmark will once again have an embassy in the Philippines,” the Danish diplomat pointed out.
Ruge said the new Danish embassy will manage both political and visa and consular affairs as well as trade promotion.
“We are in the process of recruiting local staff to enable the Embassy to carry out such a broad set of functions,” he said.
The exact location of the new embassy and the date that it will be open for business are yet to be determined, Ruge said.
“But it is quite certain that among the first guests will be a minister from Denmark to officially re-open the Embassy,” he added./PN
