Martin Sajdik is an Austrian diplomat with a long career of appointments in Belgrade, Nairobi, Geneva and Moscow, to name a few. Sajdik is currently a Senior Adviser at the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue in Geneva, Co-President of the International Center for Advanced and Comparative EU-Russia/NIS Research (ICEUR-Vienna), Board Member of the Austrian Institute for European and Security Policy (AIES), and Lecturer at the Vienna School of International Studies (Diplomatic Academy of Vienna).

From 2015 to 2020, Ambassador Sajdik was the OSCE Ukraine Special Envoy in charge of the Minsk talks on a conflict settlement in eastern Ukraine, and as 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. Prior to this, Sajdik was as the Permanent Representative of Austria to the United Nations (2012 -2015). In January 2014, he was elected as President of the UN Economic and Social Council and held this function until July 2015. He also served as Chairperson of the UN High Level Political Forum for Sustainable Development. From 2007 to 2011, Sajdik was Austrian Ambassador to the People's Republic of China, North Korea and Mongolia. From 2003 until 2007, Ambassador Sajdik held the post of 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 (CSCE) 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.  In 1997, he was appointed head of the Department for EU Enlargement, External Economic Relations, and Central, Eastern, and South-Eastern Europe. In 2003, he was appointed head of economic and integration policy in the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 

Sajdik has a doctorate in law from the University of Vienna, and studied international law at the Lomonosov University in Moscow, and international relations at the Johns Hopkins University in Bologna, Italy. He is the author of several books on the enlargement process of the EU, published in Austria, Germany, the United States, and most recently in China.  Besides his native German Sajdik speaks English, Russian, French and Italian.