Presentation of Credentials, 25 April 2023

The following foreign Heads of Mission presented their credentials to President Halimah Yacob in separate ceremonies at the Istana today:

1. The High Commissioner of the Commonwealth of Australia, His Excellency Allaster Edward Cox

2. The Ambassador of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, His Excellency Raúl Juan Pollak Giampietro

3. The High Commissioner of the Gabonese Republic, His Excellency Baudelaire Ndong Ella

Their bio summaries are appended.

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MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS

SINGAPORE

25 APRIL 2023

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HIS EXCELLENCY ALLASTER EDWARD COX
HIGH COMMISSIONER TO SINGAPORE
AUSTRALIA

High Commissioner Allaster Cox has had a long diplomatic career focussed mainly on Southeast Asia. He was most recently First Assistant Secretary for Strategy and Development in the Office of Southeast Asia at the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT). He has served as Australia’s Ambassador to Vietnam (2008-2012) and High Commissioner to Brunei Darussalam (2001-2004), as well as Deputy Head of Mission to Indonesia (2017-2021) and Malaysia (1998-2000).

After graduating from Sydney University in Economics and Law in 1985, he was a graduate trainee at Shell Australia. He is married to Susila Selvarajah and has two adult daughters.

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HIS EXCELLENCY RAÚL JUAN POLLAK GIAMPIETRO
AMBASSADOR TO SINGAPORE
ORIENTAL REPUBLIC OF URUGUAY

Ambassador Raúl Juan Pollak Giampietro was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, on 8 August 1957. He is married to Mrs Raquel Pietrzik Nieves and they have five children. In 1988, Ambassador Pollak Giampietro received his PhD in Law and Social Sciences from the University of the Republic of Uruguay's School of Law and Social Sciences.

Ambassador Pollak Giampietro began his career in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as Third Secretary in January 1986. He assumed post as the resident Ambassador of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam on 30 September 2021, with concurrent accreditation to Singapore. Prior to Vietnam, he had also served as Ambassador of Uruguay to Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras and Dominican Republic, and as Director-General of Political Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Ambassador Pollak Giampietro was also a Professor in the Department of History of the Foreign Policy of Uruguay at the Universidad ORT in Montevideo.

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HIS EXCELLENCY BAUDELAIRE NDONG ELLA
HIGH COMMISSIONER TO SINGAPORE
GABONESE REPUBLIC

High Commissioner Baudelaire Ndong Ella is currently the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Gabonese Republic to the People’s Republic of China, concurrently accredited as High Commissioner to Singapore.

A career diplomat, High Commissioner Ndong Ella served as Gabon’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York from 2015 to 2017, and Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva from 2011 to 2015. He served as Deputy Permanent Representative to the African Union from July 2009 to February 2011, with a short break during which served as Deputy Director General of International Cooperation at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Cooperation and the Francophonie of Gabon from October to November 2009. From 2007 to 2009, High Commissioner Ndong Ella served as Chargé d’Affaires ad interim at Gabon’s Embassy in Ethiopia, as well as in the Permanent Mission to the African Union, Economic Commission for Africa and the United Nations Environment Programme, having been appointed initially as First Counsellor at these entities in 2005. Prior to this, he held the post of Head of the United Nations Division at Gabon’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs from 1996 to 2005.

High Commissioner Ndong Ella served as the coordinator in-charge of human rights issues of the African Group in Geneva in 2013. He also served as the President of the Human Rights Council during its Eighth Cycle in 2014, and was a member of the Committee of Contributions in the United Nations from 2016 to 2019. At a regional level, High Commissioner Ndong Ella was the Chair of the Permanent Representative Committee of the African Union in 2009 and the President of the Peace and Security Council of the African Union in August 2009.

High Commissioner Ndong Ella holds a Postgraduate degree in international law and human rights from the University of Nantes in France; a Postgraduate Diploma from the National Administration School in Gabon; and a Master of Arts and Bachelor of Arts in public law from the University of Omar Bongo in Gabon. He is married with five children.

All photos are credited to the Ministry of Communications and Information, Singapore