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Vietnamese diplomat to take over top Asean job
Published on Thursday, 10 January 2013 09:25
News Desk
The Jakarta Post/ANN
Vietnamese veteran diplomat Le Luong Minh will assume his new post as the secretary-general of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) today in Jakarta.
“Le Luong Minh will start his five-year term in January 2013,” the Asean Secretariat said in a press release.
The secretariat will be hosting a ceremony to transfer the office on Wednesday morning. Outgoing Asean Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan, Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa and several diplomats are slated to attend the brief ceremony.
Minh faces the Herculean task of leading the association’s 10 member nations as they prepare to forge the Asean Economic Community by 2015.
The 61-year-old Minh is a career diplomat who joined the Vietnamese foreign service in 1975. He studied at Vietnam’s Institute of Foreign Affairs as well as India’s Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi.
During his 38-year career, Minh worked at the United Nations in various capacities, including as UN Security Council chairman in 2008 and 2009.
Prior to assuming his post as Aseab ’s secretary-general, Minh was Vietnam’s deputy foreign minister.