Dan Stoenescu

Dan Stoenescu (born 4 November 1980) is a Romanian career diplomat, political scientist and journalist. He was a minister in the technocratic government of Prime Minister Dacian Cioloș. He is a specialist in international relations, the Arab World and migration. He is interested in the protection of the rights of the Romanian diaspora and in the preservation of the language and culture of ethnic Romanians abroad. From March 2017 to May 22, 2021, he was Romania's ambassador to Tunisia. On April 16, 2021, European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell announced his appointment as EU chargé d’affaires to Syria, effective September. Stoenescu is fluent in Spanish, French, Italian, English, Portuguese, Romanian, and has notions of Arabic. He received a bachelor of arts degree in international studies from Austin College, in Sherman, Texas, in 2003, a master of arts degree in globalization and development from Warwick University in Great Britain in 2005, a graduate diploma in forced migration and refugee studies from the American University in Cairo in 2006, and a PhD in political science from the University of Bucharest in 2009, where he wrote his dissertation on modern Arab nationalism and Islamic identity after 1987. He followed specializations at the European Security and Defence College in Brussels, Netherlands Institute of International Relations Clingendael in the Hague, Matías Romero Institute in Mexico City and Saifi Institute for Arabic Language in Beirut. Stoenescu was Minister-delegate for Romanians abroad from 17 November 2015 to 7 July 2016, in the government of technocrats, led by Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos. Previously, he had diplomatic postings in Madrid and Beirut and was president of EUNIC (European Union National Institutes for Culture) in Lebanon for two consecutive mandates as a representative of the Romanian Cultural Institute. Between 2009–10 he worked in the Department on Policies for the Relationship with Romanians Abroad. Starting in September 2015 he was responsible for the Romanian schools in Spain as First Secretary at the Romanian Embassy in Spain.