Yannis Mallikourtis: New Consul-General of Greece in Sydney assumes duty

Sydney’s new Consul General of Greece, Yannis Mallikourtis has assumed his duties this week following the departure of Christos Karras on 30 September.

Mr Mallikourtis, a seasoned and distinguished diplomat, shared his excitement about his new post, connecting one of the most important centres of the Greek diaspora overseas with the motherland.

“A couple of days ago I assumed my duties as Consul General of Greece in Sydney, fully cognizant of the great responsibility which this position entails. It is indeed an honour and a privilege to serve such a vibrant and important part of the Greek diaspora, namely, the Greek Australian community of New South Wales,” Mr Mallikourtis wrote on the Consulate’s social media sites on 4 October.

“Building upon the solid work of my predecessors, for which I am grateful, I assure you that the General Consulate will be open to address your requests, sparing no effort to serve you efficiently. I look forward to meeting you in the coming days and weeks,” he concluded.

The new Consul-General of Greece in Sydney, who was born in Athens in Athens on 20 February 1977, has previously served at the United Nations in New York, has been a European correspondent for the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with his most recent appointment being that of Deputy Head of Mission of the Embassy of Greece in Cyprus.

Biography:

Yannis Mallikourtis joined the Diplomatic Service in 2002, after having completed his military service as Second Lieutenant in the Greek contingent in Cyprus (ELDYK), and has since served in various positions in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, both at Headquarters in Athens and abroad.

More specifically, from 2003 to 2004 he held the position of Desk Officer for EU-CIS relations in the C1 Directorate for EU External Relations, following which he was posted to the Permanent Mission of Greece to the UN in New York, where he dealt with East African issues during Greece’s tenure as non-permanent member of the UN Security Council (2005-6). In 2007, Mr. Mallikourtis moved to Amman, Jordan, where he served for three years as Deputy Head of Mission at the Greek Embassy. Returning to a multilateral context, this time at the UN in Geneva, he served as Head of the Disarmament Section at the Greek Permanent Mission from 2010 to 2015. In September 2015 he was appointed European Correspondent at the MFA, position which he held until September 2018, when he moved to Nicosia, where he served as Deputy Head of Mission of the Embassy of Greece in Cyprus. Mr. Mallikourtis assumed his current duties as Consul General of Greece in Sydney on 30 September 2022.

Mr. Mallikourtis is holder of a BA in History and Politics from Nottingham University, an MSc in European Politics and Policy from the London School of Economics (LSE) and an LLM in International Law from the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Law of Human Rights. He is fluent in Greek (mother tongue), English and French and has a command of German. Mr. Mallikourtis is married to Mrs. Christiana Stavrou. They have two children.