KUALA LUMPUR — The Yang diPertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah received the credentials of 10 foreign envoys to Malaysia at the Istana Negara March 18.
Also present at the ceremony was Raja Permaisuri Agong Tunku Hajah Azizah Aminah Maimunah Iskandariah.
Foreign Ministry deputy secretary-general (Bilateral Affairs) Datuk Amran Mohamed Zin was also present.
The envoys were Ouyang Yujing (China); David Evan Malcomson (South Africa); Viengsavanh Sipraseuth (Laos); Archbishop Wojciech Zaluski (Holy See – Vatican City State); Chainarong Keratiyutwong (Thailand); Prof Dr Senaid Memic (Bosnia Herzegovina); Herman Pule Diamonds (Namibia); Abdoulaye Barro (Senegal); Brian D. Mcfeeters (USA) and Florentino Batista Gonzalez (Cuba).
Pope Francis appointed Archbishop Zaluski as the Apostolic Nuncio for Malaysia and East Timor and Apostolic Delegate to Brunei Darussalam on Sept 28, 2020.
Archbishop Zaluski will be the second person to head the Apostolic Nunciature in Malaysia.
The Apostolic Nunciature is the diplomatic mission of the Holy See to Malaysia, and is equivalent to an embassy. Wojciech Zaluski was born on April 5, 1960, in Zaluski-Lipnie wo, in the centre east of Poland.
On June 1, 1985, he was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Lomza. On July 1 of that same year he joined the diplomatic service of the Holy See after attending the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy in Rome, graduating with a Diploma in Diplomatic Science and a Doctorate in Canon Law. He has served successfully in the Apostolic Nunciatures of Burundi, Malta, Albania, Zambia, Sri Lanka, Georgia, Ukraine, the Philippines, and Guatemala.
The 60-year old Archbishop is fluent in Polish, English, French, Spanish, Italian and Russian.
Ouyang has served as director of the Bureau of Maritime Rights and Interests and the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee, while Malcomson was chief director of the Regional Organisation Desk.
Viengsavanh, on the other hand, has served as director general of the Inspection Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Meanwhile, Chainarong was former ambassador attached to the office of the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, while Memic has served as mayor of Illidza, Sarajevo.
Diamonds was deputy head of mission and counsellor in Beijing, China, while Barro was the deputy permanent representative of the Republic of Senegal to the United Nations, New York.
Mcfeeters has served as deputy chief of mission, at the US Embassy, Baghdad, Iraq, while Gonzalez was a specialist with the rank of ambassador in the United States Division, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Cuba.
