Embassy Row

Diplomatic traffic

Foreign visitors in Washington this week include:

Today

Sen. Mircea Geoana, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee of the Romanian Senate, a former foreign minister and a former ambassador to the United States. He meets with administration officials and members of Congress, and addresses the German Marshall Fund of the United States and the Atlantic Council of the United States during his three-day visit.

c Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili and Finance Minister Timothy Thahane of the kingdom of Lesotho. They address a forum jointly sponsored by the Corporate Council on Africa and the U.S. Millennium Challenge Corp.

Frank Chang-Ting Hsieh, a candidate for president of Taiwan from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party. He holds a 3 p.m. press conference at the National Press Club. On Wednesday, he attends a congressional reception.

A delegation of young political leaders from Israel with: Kadima party members Karen Barak, owner of Contacti Strategic Consultation and Government Relations Co., and Gil Messing, deputy party spokesman; Labor Party members Nily Charush, senior adviser to member of parliament Eitan Cabel, Dror Lalush, deputy mayor of Tiberias, and Alon Rozen, a member of the Yaven City Council; Meretz-Yachad Party member Adi Shay, consultant to member of parliament Avshalom Vilan; and Pensioners’ Party member Klarina Shpitz, aide to Yitzhak Ziv, deputy speaker of the Israeli parliament. They meet with administration officials and members of Congress as part of a program organized by the American Council of Young Political Leaders.

Tomorrow

c King Abdullah II of Jordan, who meets with President Bush.

Wednesday

The Rev. Cannon Andrew White, vicar of St. George’s Anglican Church in Baghdad, and Pascale Warda, former Iraqi minister of migration and displacement. They discuss the threat to Iraq’s Chaldo-Assyrian Christians, Sabaen Mandaeans, Yazidis and other minority communities in a 9:30 a.m. hearing before the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom in Room 485 of the Russell Senate Office Building.

Thursday

Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic of Serbia, who meets with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, officials at the National Security Council and members of Congress. On Friday, he discusses Serbian democracy and the future of Kosovo in a 2 p.m. press conference at the National Press Club.

c Lee Mi-il, president of the Korean War Abductees’ Research Institute and the Korean War Abductees’ Family Union, and Kim Mi-young, the institute director and professor at South Korea’s Handong Global University. They hold a 2 p.m. press conference at the National Press Club.

c Apostolos Pierris, director of the Greek Institute for Philosophical Research, who addresses the Southeast European Project of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

Bashir Ahmed of the Jammu-Kashmir High Court Bar Association; Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, chairman of the All Parties Hurriyet Conference of Srinagar; Mohammad Akbar Haudhry, a member of the Azad Kashmir Assembly; Shaik Showkat Hussain of Kashmir University; Attia Inaytullah, a member of the Pakistani National Assembly; Sardar Attique Ahmed Khan, prime minister of Azad Kashmir; Mart Laar, a former prime minister of Estonia; Sherry Rehman, a member of the Pakistani National Assembly; Lars Rise, a former member of the Norwegian parliament; Waleed Rasool of the All Parties Hurriyet Conference of Azad Kashmir; and Majeed Tramboo, executive director of the Kashmir Center in Brussels. They attend the seventh International Kashmir Peace Conference, beginning at 10 a.m. and continuing to Friday in Room 2168 of the Rayburn House Office Building.

Call Embassy Row at 202/636-3297, fax 202/832-7278 or e-mail jmorrison@ washingtontimes.com.