Gunnar Wiegand (DE) was the Managing Director for Asia and the Pacific at the European External Action Service (EEAS) from January 2016 to August 2023. He was a key contributor to the EU’s new policy orientations on its relations with China and India, as well as the new policy initiatives on the EU Strategy for Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, on EU-Asia Connectivity as well as increased security cooperation with partners in the region. He was the EU’s chief negotiator for the new EU-Japan Strategic Partnership Agreement and the EU-Pakistan Strategic Engagement Plan. Before assuming this position, he was Deputy Managing Director for Europe and Central Asia and Director for Russia, Eastern Partnership, Central Asia and OSCE at the EEAS (2011-2016). In this function he served as the EU’s chief negotiator for the Association Agreements with Moldova, Georgia and Armenia, as well as the Enhanced Partnership and Cooperation Agreement with Kazakhstan. He also negotiated the EU-Ukraine Association Agenda and was the EU coordinator of the EU-Russia Partnership for Modernisation.
Prior to joining the EEAS, Gunnar Wiegand had worked in various functions related to external relations and trade policy at the European Commission since 1990, including as Desk Officer for external aspects of German reunification, as Policy Assistant to the Director-General for Trade Policy, as Spokesperson for External Relations to Commissioner Lord Chris Patten until 2002, as Head of Unit, first for relations with the United States and Canada (2002-2006) and then for relations with Russia and the Northern Dimension (2006-2008). In 2008 he was appointed Director for Eastern Europe, Southern Caucasus and Central Asia at the European Commission’s External Relations Directorate-General. He also worked at the Institute of European Latin American Relations (IRELA) in Madrid (1985-1987) and at the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom in Bonn (1987-1990).
Gunnar Wiegand holds a Law Degree from the University of Hamburg and an MA in International Relations from the Paul S. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, DC. Among his publications are: “The EU and its Eastern Partnership: Political association and economic integration in a rough neighbourhood” with Evelina Schulz, in European Yearbook of International Economic Law, EYIEL 6 (2015), Springer, 321-358.