José Artur Denot Medeiros

José Artur Denot Medeiros entered the diplomatic service in 1965 after legal study at the University of Brazil and training at the Rio Branco Institute. Trade policy became a central part of his work: he headed the foreign ministry’s commercial policy division from 1979 to 1983, served as minister-counselor in Washington from 1983 to 1988, and later held senior foreign trade, international finance, and regional integration positions in Brasília. His overseas assignments included Suriname, the Latin American Integration Association, and Germany. ¹

By 2005 Medeiros had become Brazil’s special representative for disarmament and nonproliferation. During a September 2007 visit to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, he discussed implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention with Director-General Rogelio Pfirter, reaffirmed Brazil’s support for eliminating chemical weapons, and sought closer cooperation with the organization. Later that year the Senate examined his nomination as ambassador to the Netherlands. ^{2, 1}