OSCE Centre in Astana

Ambassador Alexandre Keltchewsky

French career diplomat Alexandre Keltchewsky took up his post as Head of the OSCE Centre in Astana in June 2008. Mr. Keltchewsky was born in Paris in 1947, into a Russian immigrant family. He holds degrees in Economics (Soviet economy) and Russian from the University of Paris.

After three years in the private banking sector, Ambassador Keltchewsky joined the French Ministry of Finance where he served as Chief Economist with the French Embassy in Moscow from 1976 to 1980. In 1980, he moved to New Delhi, where he worked in the same capacity until 1983.

In 1984, Mr. Keltchewsky joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and worked at the East European desk in Paris before being posted abroad to Belgrade, Rabat and then Moscow between the years 1986 to 1995. In Moscow, he served as Press Counsellor and contributed to the creation of the Moscow Franco-Russian School of Journalism.

Ambassador Keltchewsky returned to Paris as Director for OSCE and Council of Europe Affairs from 1995 to 1998 and was involved in the Royaumont Initiative on the stability process in the Balkans. From 1998 to 2002, he was Consul General of France in St. Petersburg, returning afterwards to France to become Inspector at the Office of the Inspector General of the Foreign Ministry.

In 2007, Mr. Keltchewsky was appointed Special Counsellor to the Director General of 'France Coopération Internationale', an Ministry agency aimed at promoting French technical expertise in governance, human rights, anti-corruption and capacity-building.

He is married, has three children, and is fluent in French, Russian, English and Serbo-Croatian.