Le Luong Minh assumed office as the secretary-general of the ASEAN for five years starting January 2013 at an official ceremony earlier this month. He succeeds Thailand’s Dr Surin Pitsuwan, whose five-year term ended in December 2012. Minh’s appointment was formally endorsed by the ASEAN leaders at the 21st ASEAN Summit in Cambodia in November 2012.
Minh, a former deputy minister of foreign affairs of Vietnam, was the country’s permanent representative to the United Nations from 2004 to 2011 and has held several important positions during his term at Vietnam’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which began in 1975.
He graduated from the Institute of Foreign Affairs in Hanoi, Vietnam, and the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, India.
