New ASEAN head from Vietnam
The new secretary-general of the ten-nation ASEAN bloc will be Deputy Foreign Minister Le Luong Minh of Vietnam, barring unexpected developments, according to a report by Vietnamese newspaper Thanh Nien.
Minh is supposed to succeed the incumbent secretary-general, Surin Pitsuwan, a former prime minister of Thailand, on January 1, 2013. The post is being rotated alphabetically every five years among the ASEAN countries. It is now Vietnam’s turn to take the secretary-general post from Thailand. Vietnam has not held the ASEAN leadership since the inception of the association 1976, neither have Laos or Cambodia.
Le Luong Minhs’s name must be submitted for a formal approval from the ASEAN leaders in mid-November. No others are in the running for the job, according to people close to the matter.
Minh will have to shoulder the huge task of implementing the ASEAN Economic Community by 2015, and will also have to handle issues such as the South China Sea dispute.
The top diplomat is a graduate of the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, India and started his career in the foreign ministry of Vietnam in 1975. Since 2004, he has been Vietnam’s ambassador to the United Nations in New York City. He held this office from 1995 to 1997 for the UN institutions in Geneva and as a deputy in New York City from 1997 to 1999. He was the President of the United Nations Security Council in July 2008 and October 2009. Since 2008, he has served as Vietnam’s deputy foreign minister.
The new secretary-general of the ten-nation ASEAN bloc will be Deputy Foreign Minister Le Luong Minh of Vietnam, barring unexpected developments, according to a report by Vietnamese newspaper Thanh Nien. Minh is supposed to succeed the incumbent secretary-general, Surin Pitsuwan, a former prime minister of Thailand, on January 1, 2013. The post is being rotated alphabetically every five years among the ASEAN countries. It is now Vietnam’s turn to take the secretary-general post from Thailand. Vietnam has not held the ASEAN leadership since the inception of the association 1976, neither have Laos or Cambodia. Le Luong Minhs's name must be...
The new secretary-general of the ten-nation ASEAN bloc will be Deputy Foreign Minister Le Luong Minh of Vietnam, barring unexpected developments, according to a report by Vietnamese newspaper Thanh Nien.
Minh is supposed to succeed the incumbent secretary-general, Surin Pitsuwan, a former prime minister of Thailand, on January 1, 2013. The post is being rotated alphabetically every five years among the ASEAN countries. It is now Vietnam’s turn to take the secretary-general post from Thailand. Vietnam has not held the ASEAN leadership since the inception of the association 1976, neither have Laos or Cambodia.
Le Luong Minhs’s name must be submitted for a formal approval from the ASEAN leaders in mid-November. No others are in the running for the job, according to people close to the matter.
Minh will have to shoulder the huge task of implementing the ASEAN Economic Community by 2015, and will also have to handle issues such as the South China Sea dispute.
The top diplomat is a graduate of the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, India and started his career in the foreign ministry of Vietnam in 1975. Since 2004, he has been Vietnam’s ambassador to the United Nations in New York City. He held this office from 1995 to 1997 for the UN institutions in Geneva and as a deputy in New York City from 1997 to 1999. He was the President of the United Nations Security Council in July 2008 and October 2009. Since 2008, he has served as Vietnam’s deputy foreign minister.
