Hassan Wirajuda

Former Minister of Foreign Affairs

Date of Birth: 09/07/1948
Place of Birth: Tangerang, Banten

An experienced diplomat, Wirajuda is well-known in regional politics. His country's membership in several multilateral organizations frequently took him into the African orbit. Wirajuda visited Kenya from 19-20 June 2008. After meeting President Mwai Kibaki, Wirajuda and his Kenyan counterpart, Moses Wetang'ula, signed a pledge to establish a commission to develop trade between the two countries.

Wirajuda then attended a summit of the Group of Eight Developing Countries (D-8), a globe-straddling aggregation of Muslim nations: Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Turkey. At the summit held in Malaysia on 8 July that year, members called on the developed G-8 countries to address fuel and food prices, which hit developing economies hard. The D-8 also sought to reduce tariffs and raise trade among themselves - a goal that has proved elusive since the group formed in 1997.

On 14 July in Jakarta, Wirajuda co-chaired with Zola Skweyiya, South Africa's Social Development Minister, the Ministerial Conference on Capacity Building for Palestine. The conference was called by the New Asia-Africa Strategic Partnership, a group of 56 states, many of which attended the first Afro-Asian summit in Bandung in 1955.

Born in 1948, Wirajuda traveled widely for his education: he studied diplomacy at Oxford University, Britain, then spent much of the 1980s in the United States, returning home with degrees from Tufts, Harvard and the University of Virginia.

In 1993, he became Director of International Organisations at the Foreign Ministry. In 1997, he was ambassador to Egypt and then the United Nations in Geneva, where he participated in the UN Commission on Human Rights. From 2001, he served as Foreign Minister for President Megawati Soekarnoputri. When Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono won the country's first direct presidential poll, he kept Wirajuda in the post. Wirajuda played an active role in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and acted as its Chairman in 2004. He has since emerged as a harsh (by ASEAN's timid standards) critic of Myanmar's ruling junta.

Wirajuda served as Foreign Minister until October 22, 2009.