Education
He graduated from the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam in Hanoi, Vietnam in 1974, and the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, India.
He graduated from the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam in Hanoi, Vietnam in 1974, and the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, India.
In 1975, he began his career in Vietnam"s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was appointed Deputy Director-General for International Organisations in 1993. In 1995, he was appointed as Ambassador – Permanent Representative to the United Nations Office and Other International Organisations in Geneva.
In 1997, he was appointed as Ambassador – Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations at Headquarters.
Since February 17, 2004, he has been Vietnam"s ambassador to the United Nations in New York City. He held this office from 1995 to 1997 for the United Nations institutions in Geneva and as a deputy in New York City from 1997 to 1999.
He was the President of the United Nations Security Council in July 2008 and October 2009. He was nominated Association of Southeast Asian Nations Secretary-General by the government of Vietnam, a post which he took over on January 1, 2013.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations leaders endorsed him as Association of Southeast Asian Nations Secretary-General for 2013–2017 in a ceremony at the bloc"s headquarter in Jakarta on January 7, 2013.