New Permanent Representative of Austria Presents Credentials to the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva

Alexander Kmentt, the new Permanent Representative of Austria to the United Nations Office at Geneva, today presented his credentials to Tatiana Valovaya, the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva.

Prior to his appointment to Geneva, Mr. Kmentt had been serving since 2021 as Director for Disarmament, Arms Control and Non-Proliferation within the Austrian Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs, a post he also held from 2011 to 2016.

Mr. Kmentt served as Permanent Representative of Austria to the Political and Security Committee of the European Union in Brussels from 2016 to 2019. He served as Deputy Director of the Department for Disarmament Affairs and Head of the Unit for Nuclear Issues at the Austrian Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs from 2005 to 2006.  He was Chair of the European Union Non-Proliferation Working Group during the 2006 Austrian Presidency of the European Union.  He served as Deputy Permanent Representative of Austria to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva from 2000 to 2004.  He was a Cultural Attaché at the Austrian Cultural Institute in New York from 1997 to 2000.  He held various posts at the Ministry from 1994 to 1997, including a six months posting at the Austrian Embassy in Prague, Czech Republic.

During sabbaticals from the Austrian Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs, Mr. Kmentt worked as Senior Visiting Research Fellow at King’s College in London (2019-2020) and as Special Assistant to the Executive Secretary of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization (2006-2011).  

He has received multiple accolades for his work on disarmament, including the Austrian Red Cross Humanitarian Award (2025), the Simons Foundation Award for Distinguished Global Leadership in the Service of Peace and Disarmament (2021), and the International Peace Bureau MacBride Peace Prize (2021).  He was further designated as a “Nagasaki Peace Correspondent” in 2019 and has authored several publications on disarmament and arms control topics.

Mr. Kmentt holds a law degree from Graz University and a master’s degree in international relations from Cambridge University.  He is married and has two children.

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