BERLIN, Germany.- Iris Joseline Pujol Rodríguez arrived in Germany with a diplomatic career built across several continents. Before taking over the embassy in Berlin, she had worked in Canada, Colombia and Italy, accumulating experience in educational, commercial and multilateral affairs.
Since February 2025, she has served as the Dominican Republic’s extraordinary and plenipotentiary ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany. She also concurrently represents the country before Ukraine and Poland, according to official records from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the German government.
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In 2026, her tenure has begun to show a clear direction: using diplomacy to bring economic opportunities to the country while also highlighting the work of Dominicans who have put down roots in Germany.
One of the most important showcases was ITB Berlin 2026, considered the leading international tourism fair. Pujol joined the Dominican delegation in meetings with airlines, tour operators and strategic partners, in an agenda aimed at expanding air connectivity and strengthening the Dominican Republic’s presence in the German tourism market.
That market carries special weight.
In 2024, about 220,000 German tourists and visitors traveled to the Dominican Republic. Germany is also the world’s second-largest market for Dominican tobacco and maintains commercial ties with sectors such as medical devices produced in the Dominican territory.
But the ambassador has also focused attention on those who represent the country through their professions.
In July 2026, Pujol led the recognition presented by the Dominican Embassy to Dr. Sibella Pérez Zaten, a Dominican physician with 15 years of professional experience in Germany. The honor highlighted her career in healthcare and her contribution to the image of the Dominican community in that country.
The diplomatic mission estimates that about 8,000 Dominicans currently live in Germany. They do not form one of the country’s largest diasporas, but their presence extends across professionals, workers, families, students and entrepreneurs who have been building their own spaces within German society.
Pujol also knows diplomatic work beyond major official events. Before arriving in Berlin, she served as counselor in charge of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the Dominican Embassy in Canada and, previously, as commercial affairs counselor in Colombia. She later represented the country before the FAO and other international organizations in Rome.
Her arrival in Germany coincided with a bilateral relationship approaching 75 years, including cooperation in renewable energy, climate change, trade and tourism. In March 2025, she presented her credentials to Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier at Bellevue Palace.
Since then, Berlin has become her new diplomatic station.
There, amid political meetings, trade fairs and encounters with Dominicans, Iris Pujol is trying to ensure that the flag she represents does not remain only inside an embassy. The mission seems to be carrying it into the spaces where the Dominican Republic can open an opportunity, build an alliance or recognize one of its own.
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