Grand Duke Henri had an audiences with new ambassadors to the grand duchy from two of Luxembourg’s neighbours on Friday.

Thomas Lambert, ambassador of Belgium, has a wealth of diplomatic experience including stints in Washington as deputy ambassador to the US and more recently as an advisor to Belgian prime minister Sophie Wilmes.

The new ambassador of Germany, Ullrich Wilhelm Klöckner, has headed his country’s diplomatic missions to Mozambique, Zimbabwe and the Sudan. He succeeds the highly popular Heinrich Kreft.

The Netherlands is now represented in Luxembourg by Cornelis Jan Bansema, who was previously head of mission at the Dutch embassy in Helsinki and before that served as deputy head of mission in Delhi.

China’s new ambassador, Xiaorong Yang, arrives after serving four years as the ambassador to Madagascar. She has also had experience as a counsellor at the Chinese embassy in Brussels.

And the new ambassador from Tonga is Titilupe Fanetupouvava’u Tu’ivakano, who resides in Brussels as the ambassador to Belgium and Luxembourg. She has previously served as Tonga’s High Commissioner in London, a post that her father also occupied.