Vietnamese Ambassador to Kuwait Nguyen Hong Thao is the first Vietnamese representative to be appointed to the UN International Law Commission.
According to VnExpress, Thao was elected to the body on November 3 with 120 out of 190 votes cast. He won one of the seven seats that the commission had allocated for the Asia-Pacific region.
The diplomat has over 40 years of experience in international law, the news source reports. Before acting as ambassador to Kuwait, he served as deputy head of the National Border Committee, head of the negotiation team on border agreements with neighboring countries and a legal advisor to Vietnam's 2012 Law of the Sea.
The six other regional representatives hail from China, Japan, South Korea, India, Thailand and Indonesia.
The UN's International Law Commission works to draft international conventions and study major issues of international law. It is made up of 34 members elected every five years, who operate independently from the countries that nominate them.
[Photo via Tuoi Tre]
