NEW PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF LAO PEOPLE’S DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC PRESENTS CREDENTIALS TO DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF UNOG

Somphet Khousakoun, the new Permanent Representative of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic to the United Nations Office at Geneva, today presented his credentials to Sergei Ordzhonikidze, the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva.

Prior to his appointment to Geneva, Mr. Khousakoun had been serving as Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs since 2001. He was Ambassador of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic to Indonesia from 1998 to 2001. He also served as the Third, and then Second Secretary in the Lao Embassy in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia from 1986 to 1990.

A career diplomat, Mr. Khousakoun joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic in 1983. He has served in the Ministry’s Department of Socialist Countries and the Department of Asia, Pacific and Africa. He has also served as Deputy Chief of the Cabinet of the Ministry from 1995 to 1996, and Director-General of the Department of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and Chief Negotiator for Laos’ Admission to ASEAN from 1996 to 1998.

Mr. Khousakoun graduated from the Mongolian National University with a Master Degree in Mongolian Language and Literature in 1983. He obtained a diploma in international relations from the Institut International d’Administration Publique in Paris in 1992 and a certificate in international public law from the Academy of International Law in The Hague in 1992. He was born on 12 July 1954 and is married with two sons.

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