The Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination will hold a lunch seminar focusing on Ukraine on Thursday, April 20, 2017, at 12:00 p.m. in 012 Bendheim Hall. Ambassador Martin Sajdik, Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office in Ukraine and in the Trilateral Contact Group, will lead the discussion. The seminar is co-sponsored by the Program in Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies, the EU Program, and the Program in Contemporary European Politics and Society. To attend, RSVP to Angella Matheney.

Ambassador Martin Sajdik was appointed Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office to the Trilateral Contact Group on the implementation of the peace plan in the East of Ukraine on January 4, 2017, being previously appointed Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office in Ukraine by the former German and Serbia's OSCE Chairpersons-in-Office. Prior to this, Sajdik has served as the Permanent Representative of Austria to the United Nations, the People’s Republic of China, Mongolia and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. From 2003 until 2007, Ambassador Sajdik was Director General for Economic Affairs and European Integration. Between postings at the Austrian Embassy in Moscow (1980-1985 and 1989-1991) and with the Executive Secretariat of the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe in Vienna (1986-1987), he held executive positions at a major Austrian construction company and an Austrian Bank in Moscow. Earlier in his career, he served at the Permanent Representation of Austria to the United Nations Office at Geneva.

Ambassador Sajdik studied law, international law and international relations in Vienna, Moscow and Bologna, and received his doctorate degree in law in Vienna in 1971. He is the author of several books on the “enlargement process of the EU”, published in Austria, Germany, USA and most recently in China.