Nine new heads of mission appointed

KUALA LUMPUR: Nine new heads of mission received their letters of credence from Yang di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Muhammad V at Istana Negara here Monday.  

The new heads of mission include Ambassador Jojie Samuel who will be going to Thailand. 

Ambassador Jojie Samuel started his service at Wisma Putra in 1992. 

He served as the director-general of Asean-Malaysia National Secretariat since 2016 and was Malaysian ambassador to Cuba between 2011 and 2014.  

Datuk S. Ganeson has been appointed as ambassador to Austria.  

Ganeson joined the Malaysian Public Service in 1994. He was the undersecretary of the East Asia Division since 2015 prior to his Vienna appointment.  

He was previously the Malaysian ambassador to Chile from 2011 to 2015, undersecretary of Multilateral Political Division from 2008 to 2011 and counsellor at the Permanent Mission of Malaysia to the United Nations in New York from 2004 to 2008. 

Sharrina Abdullah, the ambassador to Senegal since 2014 will be the new ambassador to Switzerland. 

She was previously the undersecretary of the South Central Asia Division of the Foreign Ministry from 2011 to 2014 and undersecretary (research) at the Department of Research, Treaty and International Law of the Ministry from 2009 to 2011. 

Other heads of missions who received their credentials are Datuk Ahmad Fadil  Shamsuddin (Qatar), Ikram Mohd Ibrahim (Pakistan), Abdul Malik Melvin Castelino (Italy), Dr Shazelina Zainul Abidin (Senegal) and Astanah Banu  Abdul Aziz (Morocco) and Nur Izzah Wong Mee Choo (New Zealand).