NEW PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF EGYPT PRESENTS CREDENTIALS TO DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF UNOG

Wafaa Bassim, the new Permanent Representative of Egypt to the United Nations Office at Geneva, today presented her credentials to Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva.

Prior to her appointment to Geneva, Ms. Bassim had been serving as Deputy Foreign Minister for Cabinet Affairs since 2005. She served as Ambassador to Romania from 2001 to 2005. Ms. Bassim was a member of Egypt’s Mission to the United Nations Office at Geneva and a negotiator of the International Treaty on Chemical Weapons from 1981 to 1985.

A career diplomat, Ms. Bassim has served at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in several capacities, including as Deputy Assistant Foreign Minister for European Affairs from 1999 to 2001, and Director of the European Union Department from 1998 to 1999. She was a political counsellor at Egypt’s Embassy in Rome from 1997 to 1998. Ms. Bassim has also represented Egypt in numerous international fora, including the International Contact Group on Afghanistan and Pakistan; the International Contact Group on combating piracy off the coast of Somalia; and the Euro Mediterranean Partnership and the Mediterranean Forum.

Ms. Bassim has a B.A. in political sciences from the Faculty of Economic and Political Sciences, Cairo University (1977). She joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1978 and graduated from the Diplomatic Institute in 1979. She participated as a Fellow in the United Nations Disarmament Fellowship Programme in 1980, and received a Masters degree in international relations in 1985. She was born in 1955 and is married.


For use of the information media; not an official record

CR12/032E