Retno Marsudi

Retno Lestari Priansari Marsudi (born 27 November 1962) is an Indonesian diplomat who formerly served as the Minister for Foreign Affairs in the Cabinet of Joko Widodo between 2014 and 2024. She is the first female minister appointed to the post. She was previously the Indonesian Ambassador to the Netherlands from 2012 to 2014, as well as Ambassador to Iceland and Norway from 2005 to 2008.

Early life and education Marsudi was born Retno Lestari Priansari and was born on 27 November 1962 in Semarang, Central Java, as the eldest child and daughter of the five children of Moch Sidik (1934–2016), a high school teacher and veteran soldier, and Retno Werdiningsih (b. 1940), a high school employee. She graduated from SMAN 3 Semarang and continued her study in International Relations, graduating from Gadjah Mada University in 1985. She then pursued a master's degree in International European Law & Policy at The Hague University of Applied Science in 2000. Outside higher education, Retno attended the foreign ministry training program at the Netherlands Institute of International Relations Clingendael and a program in human rights study at the University of Oslo in 2007.

Following her tenure in the Netherlands, Marsudi returned to the foreign ministry to serve as deputy director (chief of subdirectorate) of UN environmental cooperation within the directorate of multilateral economic cooperation from 2000 to 2001. and served until 2003. She subsequently became the director of West Europe from 2004 to 2005. During his tenure as West Europe director, from 2004 to 2005 Marsudi was part of a fact-finding team that investigated the death of human rights activist Munir Said Thalib. She also became a member of the special presidential envoy on Indonesia's debt moratorium in 2005. During her tenure, she was awarded the Royal Norwegian Order of Merit in December 2011, the first Indonesian to receive the award. She also briefly took up the study of human rights at the University of Oslo. Marsudi returned to Jakarta and was sworn in as director general of European and American affairs on 24 April 2008.

Netherlands Marsudi was appointed as Indonesian Ambassador to the Netherlands in 2011 by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. She has also led various multilateral negotiations and bilateral consultations with the EU, ASEM, and FEALAC. In October 2019, she was re-appointed for a second term as Minister of Foreign Affairs by President Joko Widodo in the Onward Indonesia Cabinet.

Covid–19 In 2021, Marsudi was appointed co-chair – alongside Karina Gould and Lia Tadesse – of the COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC) Engagement Group; the AMC is a financing instrument established to support the participation of 92 lower-middle and low-income economies in the COVAX Facility and ensure their access to COVID-19 vaccines.

Myanmar In 2023, Marsudi headed Indonesia's newly established Office of Special Envoy to Myanmar for ASEAN, where she pushed for the implementation of the Five-Point Consensus (5PC) and sought to engage with "all stakeholders" in the ongoing Myanmar civil war to enable dialogue and find a solution to the crisis. By the end of her tenure, however, little impact was made to ending the violence in the country.

UN Special Envoy on Water In 2024, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres appointed Marsudi as his Special Envoy on Water.

Personal life Marsudi is married to Agus Marsudi, an architect, and has had two sons, Dyota (b. 8 February 1989) and Bagas Marsudi (b. 1993).

Honours National

Foreign honours