Tej Bunnag

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Tej Bunnag ( Thai : เตช บุนนาค ; born November 25, 1943 ) is a Thai historian and diplomat . He was the Thai Ambassador to the People's Republic of China, France and the United States and a Permanent Representative to the United Nations. From July to September 2008 he was Thailand's Foreign Minister.

biography

Tej belongs to the Bunnag family (Thai: สกุล บุนนาค ), one of the large Siams (or Thailand) families that were founded by immigrants and that have been very influential in politics, business and society to this day. His grandfather Tom Bunnag was foreign minister in the Phraya Phahon Phonphayuhasena government from 1933-34 . Tej attended Vajiravudh Boarding School and Malvern College in England. He studied at King's College of the University of Cambridge (MA 1965) and at St Antony's College of the University of Oxford ( D.Phil. 1968). His dissertation deals with the reform of the Thai provincial administration under Damrong Rajanubhab from 1892.

He joined the diplomatic service in 1969 , headed the East Asia Department from 1973, and became First Secretary of the Thai Embassy in Jakarta in 1976. In 1986 he was appointed ambassador to the People's Republic of China and was accredited as such in North Korea until 1990 . In 1990 he moved to the United Nations in New York City as the Permanent Representative of Thailand . Between 1996 and 2000 he was ambassador to France and then until 2001 ambassador to the USA . On October 1, 2001, he became a permanent state secretary in the Foreign Ministry, making him the highest-ranking diplomat in the country.

On July 26, 2008, he succeeded Noppadon Pattama as Foreign Minister in the cabinet of Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej and only held this office until September 3, 2008. Noppadon had to resign after he had put too much pressure on the entry of the Preah Vihear Temple ( Prasat Preah Vihear ), who for decades at the center of a violent border conflict with Cambodia , exercised in the list of World Heritage Sites by UNESCO . During his short term in office, Tej managed to take the tension out of this border conflict between the two countries, which had previously deployed troops along the region when the situation had previously escalated.

The domestic political crisis, in which thousands of opponents of the government besieged the government house (Government House) of Prime Minister Samak, led to his resignation as foreign minister after the declaration of a state of emergency in Bangkok on September 3, 2008 after only forty days in office. After weeks of protests against Samak's government, Samak was finally dismissed on September 9, 2008 by the Constitutional Court for unconstitutional sideline activity.

Tej is also active as a historian . In his 1970 book "In Memoriam Phya Anuman Rajadhon", which he published with Michael Smithies, articles dealt with the Kingdom of Ayutthaya and with Wan Waithayakon , President of the 11th  UN General Assembly . His book "The Provincial Administration of Siam 1892-1915", published in 1978, is a standard work on the subjects of Kalahom (Ministry of Defense), Monthon (Supreme Administrative Unit ) and one of the most influential personalities of Thailand in the 20th century, Damrong Rajanubhab .

Publications

  • Tej Bunnag, Michael Smithies (Ed.): “In Memoriam Phya Anuman Rajadhon”, The Siam Society, Bangkok 1970
  • Tej Bunnag: "The Provincial Administration of Siam 1892-1915". Oxford University Press 1978, ISBN 0-19-580343-4

Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Tej Bunnag: The provincial administration of Siam from 1892 to 1915. Doctoral thesis, Oxford University, 1968.
Note on Thai names : This article addresses people by their first name.
personal data
SURNAME Tej Bunnag
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Thai historian, diplomat and politician
DATE OF BIRTH November 25, 1943