San Pedro businessman Nagel has been asked to leave the post as Belize’s Ambassador to Austria by the Austrian Government. The unexpected action was due to the allegedly poor performance of Nagel as a diplomat, accusing him of neglecting his ambassadorial duties for his own personal business work.
The ambassador, who was also appointed as Belize’s permanent representative to the United Nations offices in Vienna, Austria, is a US attorney, and the founder and managing partner of the international law firm.
At the time of his assignment in September of 2015, Belize’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Honourable Wilfred Elrington stated that Nagel was the best option for the post at the Belizean Embassy in Vienna. “Nagel has a perfect combination of skills to represent our nation in Austria and Western Europe,” said Elrington. “Among these is his extensive experience as a Belizean businessman and fluency in speaking and writing German.”
Minister Elrington shared with the media on Friday, April 7th that he has not received any communication from the Austrian Government indicating what exactly the ambassador was doing during his tenure as a diplomat. He further spoke on the possible reasons why Nagel was expelled. “Countries behave in their own way. You have diplomats being expelled immediately when you have disputes, so apparently there is no real protocol,” explained Elrington. “These countries, especially when they are dealing with smaller countries, tend to be kind of arrogant and there is not much that we can do.” It was also confirmed that the offices of the Belizean Embassy in Austria remain closed, until a new ambassador is appointed.
Since then, Elrington contends that business continues as usual for Nagel, who has returned to Ambergris Caye. He also added that Nagel did generate good results in his short term as ambassador. Elrington mentioned that a closer relationship with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was established. As a result, the IAEA has sent teams to Belize to observe the situation with various cancer causing agents among other things, which the Minister did not disclose.
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