H.E. Christian Schmidt
Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, Germany

Christian Schmidt was appointed Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development in December 2013. Prior to that, Schmidt held the same post at the Federal Ministry of Defence for eight years. Christian Schmidt is deputy chairman of the Christian Social Union party (CSU) and also chairs the CSU working group on foreign, security and development policy. As a member of parliament Schmidt has represented the CSU group of parliamentarians as a spokesperson for foreign, security, European and development policy; he has also served as defence policy spokesperson of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group; he has been a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, the Committee on Economic Cooperation and Development and the Defence Committee. In 1997, the Federal Foreign Minister appointed him to the Council of the German-Czech Discussion Forum; since 2013 he has held the position of German co-chair of the Forum. During the course of his political career Christian Schmidt has been significantly involved in shaping German development cooperation, for example multiministerial cooperation with fragile states or his contribution to the development of the so-called “comprehensive approach”, which has been used in countries such as Afghanistan. Christian Schmidt was born on 26 August 1957 in Obernzenn. He is married and has two children.