Biographical Note

New permanent representative of Bulgaria presents credentials

(Based on information provided by the Protocol and Liaison Service.)

Rayko Strahilov Raytchev, the new Permanent Representative of Bulgaria, today presented his credentials to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Prior to his new appointment, since August 2005, Mr. Raytchev served as Chief of the Cabinet of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria, and before that, he headed the Arms Control and International Security (July-August 2005) and Global Security and Disarmament (March-July 2005) departments within the Foreign Ministry’s North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and International Security Directorate.  From November 2001 to January 2005, he was his country’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York.

Having started his diplomatic career in 1982 at the rank of an Attaché, over the years Mr. Raytchev held increasingly important positions at Bulgaria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where he became head of the United Nations Department within the Coordination and Planning Directorate in January 2000.  After that, he also headed the United Nations and General Issues Department from January to November 2001.

Mr. Raytchev holds a master’s degree in international relations from the Higher Institute of Economics in Sofia, Bulgaria.  In 1984, he received training in specialization and project formulation and execution at the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Secretariat.  In 2001, he received a certificate in peacekeeping negotiations and mediation from the Pearson Peacekeeping Centre in Canada and, this year, a certificate upon completion of a course in managing political and economic change from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Born on 29 March 1955, Mr. Raytchev is married and has a daughter.

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For information media • not an official record