NEW PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF SINGAPORE PRESENTS CREDENTIALS
Press Release
BIO/3172/Rev.1*
NEW PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF SINGAPORE PRESENTS CREDENTIALS
19980805 Biographical Note Kishore Mahbubani, the new Permanent Representative of Singapore to the United Nations, presented his credentials today to Secretary-General Kofi Annan.Prior to his current assignment, Mr. Mahbubani worked as Permanent Secretary in his country's Ministry for Foreign Affairs, holding that post from 1993. For a year prior to that, he was the Deputy Secretary in the Ministry.
Mr. Mahbubani began his service with the Foreign Ministry in 1971 as an Administrative Assistant and then in 1972 he moved to the position of Foreign Service Officer. In 1973, he moved to Phnom Penh, where he worked as the Chargé d'affaires for the Singapore Embassy.
Following an academic course in Canada from 1974 to 1975, he returned to the Foreign Ministry as a Foreign Service Officer. From 1976 to 1979, he was posted in Kuala Lumpur as Counsellor for the Singapore High Commission; from 1979 to 1982, he worked as Deputy Director of the Political Division in the Foreign Ministry; and then, from 1982 to 1984, he was Minister Counsellor and Deputy Head of Mission in Washington, D.C.
His first posting at the United Nations was from 1984 to 1989, during which time he was his Mission's Permanent Representative. Concurrently, he remained accredited as High Commissioner in Canada and Ambassador to Mexico.
Mr. Mahbubani has also held several academic appointments, including a fellowship at the Center for International Affairs at Harvard University from 1991 to 1992.
Mr. Mahbubani has published several articles, including "The Kampuchean Problem: A Southeast Asian Perception" in Foreign Affairs (1983/84); "The West and the Rest" in The National Interest (1992); "Japan Adrift" in Foreign Policy (1992); and "The United States: Go East, Young Man" in The Washington Quarterly (1994). He has also just published his collection of essays entitled Can Asians Think?
He is married and has three children.
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* Revised to update information in the penultimate paragraph.