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

Yafei He, the new Permanent Representative of China to the United Nations Office at Geneva, today presented his credentials to Sergei A. Ordzhonikidze, the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva.

Prior to his appointment to Geneva, since 2008, Mr. He had been serving as Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs of China. He was Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2006 to 2008, and served as Director-General of the Department of North American and Oceanian Affairs, from 2001 to 2006. Other high-level positions held by Mr. He include Minister-Counsellor and Minister at the Chinese Embassy in the United States, from 1998 to 2001; Deputy Director-General of the Department of Arms Control, from 1997 to 1998; and Counsellor with the Department of International Organizations and Conferences of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, from 1996 to 1997.

The new Permanent Representative of China has prior experience working with the United Nations system, serving as a First Secretary and Counsellor for the Permanent Mission of China to the United Nations from 1992 to 1996. Indeed, Mr. He has a long diplomatic career behind him, which started in 1981 as an interpreter at the United Nations Secretariat in New York.

Having completed his undergraduate studies at Hangzhou University, and graduate studies at the Beijing Institute of Foreign Languages, Mr. He received a degree from the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva in 1987.

Born in March 1955 in Zhejiang Province, the new Permanent Representative of China is married with a daughter.


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CR10/009E