Envoys present credentials

Official handover: Al-Sultan Abdullah receiving the letter of appointment from Ponevacs-Pana during the ceremony at Istana Negara in Kuala Lumpur. — Bernama

KUALA LUMPUR: Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah has received the credentials of 12 foreign envoys to Malaysia at Istana Negara here.

They are Sami Rafael Leino of Finland, Kristen Rosenvold Geelan (Denmark), Dr Petra Ponevacs-Pana (Hungary), Jagdishwar Goburdhun (Mauritius), Michalis Rokas (EU), Hermono (Indonesia), Ronald Galharague (France), Dr Peter-Christof Blomeyer (Germany), Diego Velasco Von Pilgrimm (Chile), Pam Chong Dunn (New Zealand), Tran Viet Thai (Vietnam) and Golam Sarwar (Bangladesh).

Leino served as director of the Unit for East Asia and Oceania at the Americas and Asia Department of Finland’s Foreign Ministry, while Geelan was Denmark’s ambassador to Hungary in 2016.

Ponevacs-Pana served as deputy minister of state for foreign economic relations in Hungary’s Foreign Affairs and Trade Ministry from 2014 until 2020.

Goburdhun was formerly the Mauritius High Commissioner to India from 2015 to 2020, while Rokas served also as First Secretary of the European Union delegation to Hong Kong and Macau in 2002.

Hermono was Indonesian ambassador to Spain for two years from 2018, while Galharague was France’s ambassador to the Czech Republic from 2017 until September this year.

Blomeyer was Germany’s ambassador to several countries including Uganda and Kosovo, while Velasco served as Chile’s forensic team coordinator for the 2004 tsunami in Thailand.

Chong Dunn has served as New Zealand’s ambassador to Asean, while Thai was the director of Vietnam’s Centre for Apec Studies and Sarwar was Bangladesh envoy to Sweden (2013) and Oman (2017).

Also present at the ceremony was Foreign Ministry secretary-general Datuk Muhammad Shahrul Ikram Yaakob. — Bernama