A Federal Foreign Office spokesperson issued the following statement in Berlin today (29 February):

”Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle has come to a number of personnel decisions, as follows:

Ambassador Michael Steiner, formerly Special Representative of the Federal Government for Afghanistan and Pakistan, has been appointed the new German Ambassador in New Delhi. He will take up his post shortly.

Germany’s current Ambassador in Paris, Reinhard Schäfers, will become the German Ambassador in Rome on the usual transfer date in mid 2012.

Ambassador Schäfers’ successor in Paris will be Dr Susanne Wasum-Rainer, who is currently Head of the Legal Directorate-General at the Federal Foreign Office and Legal Advisor to the German Government on matters of international law.“