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United Nations: Vanessa Frazier, diplomat to the end of the word

2021-06-12T17:01:02.579Z


PORTRAIT - A first in the history of the United Nations. Malta's ambassador to the United Nations will chair a committee made up entirely of women.


She takes her time to answer. It might sound like hesitation. No. She doesn't hesitate. She wants to be precise. Polyglot, she wishes, in front of us, to put the right words in the language of Molière. Vanessa Frazier, diplomat to the end of the word, has been Malta's permanent representative to the United Nations in New York since January 2020. Ambassador?

“I am Madam Ambassador, the Ambassador is the Ambassador's wife. "

We like to say that she is, in a nutshell, a key figure of the Maltese political life. White. Silence.

“I am in diplomacy. Not in politics. "

The sentence falls.

Dried.

The black belt in judo, a former member of the Maltese Olympic team, has just knocked us out.

But, not without humor, as if to pick us up, she immediately adds with a big smile:

“A politician talks for hours about a problem without really thinking while a diplomat thinks for hours to decide not to say anything.

"

Judo was an excellent school to instill in me discipline, concentration, commitment, and above all preparation.

Vanessa Frazier

The tone is set. This former top athlete who speaks four languages ​​prepared our meeting well. Mainly in French. We have been warned. Words have meaning. She has the meaning of words. Politics is not diplomacy, even if she admits to being passionate about it. Diplomacy came to her as a vocation 30 years ago, when in 1992 she embraced this universe as a student diplomat.

“I must admit that in my career, judo has been an excellent school to instill in me discipline, concentration, commitment, and above all preparation. "

From Malta to Paris via Washington, Rome, London, Brussels or New York, gender equality, the eradication of poverty and education for all have been and are the pillars of the actions it has always championed .

Several prestigious distinctions

Commitments recognized by many governments which have earned it several prestigious distinctions.

Among which, in 2013, that of

“Woman Inspiring Europe”

by the European Institute for equality between men and women or more recently the

“Woman Shaping Foreign Policy”

for her fight for women in the world.

The French government, meanwhile, elevated her to the rank of Chevalier in the National Order of Merit for her work during the Libyan Revolution.

And, for the diplomatic achievement of a lifetime, the Maltese Ministry of Foreign Affairs presented him with the highest honor given to his ambassadors.

Read also: The UN, a valuable but controversial organization

Reading this committed journey, we understand why her peers unanimously elected her president of the Second United Nations Committee (Economic and Financial Committee) for the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly which will open. in October. With humility, she adds:

“I am very proud to say that for the first time in the history of the United Nations, an office will be made up entirely of women. I will take the highest post to which a Maltese woman diplomat has been elected at the UN. This must show everyone that anything is possible when you work and that you are motivated.

 "

My mother and my grandmother have always supported me a lot and above all instilled in me the conviction that I could be what I wanted to be.

That just because I was a woman didn't mean I couldn't make my dreams come true

Vanessa Frazier

But which figure is at the origin of so much will?

“My mother and my grandmother. Two remarkable and very intelligent women who read a lot. As they married young and devoted themselves to their families, they were never able to go to university. They have always supported me a lot and above all instilled in me the conviction that I could be what I wanted to be. That just because I was a woman didn't mean I couldn't make my dreams come true. I fought. They have always encouraged me to seize the opportunities available to me. I did it.

This woman who divides her time between planes and international commissions also has her bearings.

“My two children are my first source of inspiration but I am also very attentive to my team in New York and to a small group of very close friends with whom I can, without fear, share my insights and ideas. ideas.

"

Time is counted.

Even more for this diplomat whose motto is

"Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today."

"

Final question.

Where would she see herself in 10 years?

“Today, a decade is almost a century.

We'll see… ”

Vanessa Frazier gets up and, while greeting me, points out with a smile that I have not touched the chocolates… of the ambassador.


Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2021-06-12

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