OSCE Office in Zagreb

Ambassador Jorge Fuentes Monzonís-Vilallonga

Ambassador Jorge Fuentes Monzonís-Vilallonga was born on 12 April 1940, in Valencia, Spain. He holds degrees in Law and Political and Economic Sciences from the Complutense University, Madrid. He also received a Master degree in International Studies from the Diplomatic School of Spain. He speaks Spanish, English, French, Italian and Portuguese.

Ambassador Fuentes began his diplomatic career in 1972, when he joined the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He has specialized in three professional areas: Central and Eastern European Affairs and East-West relations, multi-lateral diplomacy, and the CSCE/OSCE.

In the first area, he was the Director for Eastern Europe at the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1972-76). He then served as the Deputy Chief of Mission at the Spanish Embassy in Belgrade (1976-1978). Between 1989-93, he was DCM of the Embassy of Spain in Washington DC and then Ambassador in Bulgaria and in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (1993-1997).

In the multilateral field, Jorge Fuentes was councillor at the Spanish mission at the United Nations (New York, 1978-82), Ambassador at the Western European Union (Brussels, 1997-2000) and Ambassador at large for the European Integration (2000-2005).

Ambassador Fuentes has had several assignments with the OSCE. From 1972 until 1983, he was a member of the Spanish Delegation in the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE) meetings in Geneva, Helsinki, Belgrade and Madrid. In 1983-1984 he was the Acting Head of the Spanish Delegation in the OSCE Conference for Disarmament, Stockholm. Between 1985 and 1989 he was the Deputy Director General for Eastern, Central and Southern Europe and Director for OSCE affairs with the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In May 2005, Ambassador Fuentes was appointed Head of the OSCE Mission to Croatia and led it to its successful completion in December 2007. Ambassador Fuentes was appointed Head of the OSCE Office in Zagreb on 1 January 2008.

Ambassador Fuentes is the author of several books, essays and articles on the OSCE, East-West relations, the EU and other international affairs-related subjects.

Mr Fuentes is married and has two daughters, one son and, for the time being, four grandchildren.