Ivan Mrkić

Mr. Mrkić has been re-elected to the post of the President of the Commission of International Sport Cooperation of the Olympic Committee of Serbia in 2021.

Since 2020, Mr. Mrkić assumed the duty of the member of the Editorial Board of the Magazine Napredak (Progress), as Editor-in-Chief of International Affairs.

He has been nominated by the government of Serbia on two occasions (2017 and 2020) as a member of the National Council for the Coordination of the Cooperation with the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China.

On 27 July 2012, Mrkić was appointed as the Serbian Minister of Foreign Affairs in the cabinet of Prime Minister Ivica Dačić. He was appointed as a career diplomat and independent candidate, not aligned with any party, but was endorsed by Serbian Progressive Party.

After completing his service in Japan in 2011, Mrkić was appointed State Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Serbia under his predecessor Vuk Jeremić, where he stayed until his appointment as Minister of Foreign Affairs.

In 2005, he served as President of the National Commission for the Implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention, appointed by the Council of Ministers of Serbia and Montenegro. In 2006, Ivan Mrkić was appointed as Ambassador of the Republic of Serbia to Tokyo, Japan, where he served his diplomatic tenure until 2011. He co-authored the book A little Guide Through The History of Serbo-Japanese Relations (2011).

In 1993, Mrkić was appointed to the office of the Yugoslav Embassy's chargé d'affaires in Cyprus, after which he became the Yugoslav Ambassador in Nicosia, Cyprus, where he remained until 1999. He shifted into an ambassadorial role as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Belgrade, and became Deputy Head for Bilateral Affairs in 2000. In 2001, he accepted an appointment as Head of Bilateral Relations and Assistant to the Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs. Starting in 2004, Mrkić joined a group of ambassadors for special and ad hoc duties in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the then Serbia and Montenegro.

From 1992-93, Mrkić served as Chief of the Cabinet under Dobrica Ćosić, the first President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

Mrkić continued his diplomatic service in Brussels, where he served as the Minister Counselor for the Yugoslav mission to the European Community between 1990 and 1992. During that period, he participated in the work of the Conference on the former Yugoslavia in The Hague and Brussels.

Between 1979 and 1982, Mrkić worked as a clerk in the Administration of International Relations of the Federal Ministry for Foreign Affairs. He attended a United Nations Disarmament Fellowship in Geneva, Vienna, New York, and Boston. He continued on in the roles of counselor, then Assistant Chief of the Division of Multilateral Activities. He was also a participant in United Nations General Assembly sessions, as well as in the delegation at the Ninth Conference of the Non Aligned Movement in Belgrade in 2012.

Mrkić was born in Belgrade, Serbia, Yugoslavia, where he finished his elementary and secondary education. He graduated from the University of Belgrade Faculty of Law in 1977. He also speaks English and French.

Ivan Mrkić (Serbian Cyrillic: Иван Мркић, pronounced [ǐʋan mr̂kitɕ], born 30 May 1953) is a Serbian diplomat and the former Minister of Foreign Affairs.