NEW PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF CHILE PRESENTS CREDENTIALS
Press Release
BIO/3290
NEW PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF CHILE PRESENTS CREDENTIALS
20000517 Biographical Note(Based on information received from the Protocol and Liaison Service.)
J. Gabriel Valdes, the new Permanent Representative of Chile to the United Nations, presented his credentials to Secretary-General Kofi Annan today.
Since June 1999, Mr. Valdes has served as Minister for Foreign Affairs of his country, and in 1996-1999, he was Vice-Minister for International Economic Affairs in the Chilean Foreign Ministry. Between 1994 and 1996, he worked as Director of the International Division of the Ministry of Finance and Coordinator of the North American Free Trade Agreement Negotiating Team. In 1996, he was lead negotiator of the Free Trade Agreement between Chile and Canada.
Mr. Valdes began his professional career in 1972 as a researcher for the Political Science Institute at Universidad Católica de Chile. Exiled under Chile's military regime, he lived in the United States, where he worked at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C. In 1976, he moved to Mexico, where he joined the Latin American Institute for Transnational Studies. He also took the position of Professor of International Relations at the Economic Research and Development Centre for Mexico.
In 1981, Mr. Valdes coordinated a study group on the transnationalization process of the Latin America International Relations Programme of the United Nations. In 1984 and 1987, he was a research fellow at the Kellogg Institute of International Studies of Notre Dame University and at the Center for Latin American Studies at Princeton University. In 1985, he worked as a consultant at the Economic Commission for Latin America.
After his return to Chile, he combined his professional and academic activities with an active participation in the political struggle in the country. In 1994, he served as a consultant to the United Nations Programme for Development in Santiago. In 1995, he was appointed a member of the National Television Council.
Mr. Valdes holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Princeton University and a Master's degree in Political and Latin American Studies from Essex University in Great Britain. He completed his undergraduate studies at the Law School of the Universidad Católica de Chile. He has many publications, which include numerous articles on international relations.
Mr. Valdes is married with four children.
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