Gouillon to head Serbian Office for Public and Cultural Diplomacy

BELGRADE - The Serbian government named French-born politician and humanitarian worker Arnaud Gouillon as head of Serbia's Office for Public and Cultural Diplomacy on Thursday.

The Office's task will be to further promote Serbian state interests to the local and foreign public through presenting national values and goals.

The Office will aim to contribute to better flow of information and will be performing expert tasks for government needs.

Thanking President Aleksandar Vucic and PM Milos Vucevic for their trust and great support, Gouillon said it was a great honour to be in the service of free and freedom-loving Serbia.

"I will do everything in my power to help create a more beautiful, more truthful image of Serbia and the Serbs. Our work starts immediately. Much work and many challenges are ahead of us amid the turbulent times we are going through and the growing pressure on Serbia," an official statement quoted Gouillon as saying.

Grenoble-born Gouillon, 39, is the founder of the French humanitarian organisation Solidarite Kosovo, which has been helping Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija since 2004.

He has authored several books on Serbia and Kosovo-Metohija in foreign languages and a French documentary about the life of Kosovo-Metohija Serbs, titled "Kosovo, Christianity in Danger."

He has been living in Serbia since 2012 and was awarded Serbian citizenship in 2015 for his merit in humanitarian work.

Between November 2020 and May 2024, Gouillon served as acting head of the Serbian MFA's Directorate for Cooperation with the Diaspora and Serbs in the Region.