We are pleased to welcome Ambassador Umej Bhatia as representative of Singapore to Interpeace’s Advisory Council.

The Adivsory Council is a high-level statutory body that provides the organization with key strategic advice and guidance on peacebuilding policy and practice. It plays a key role in guiding the organization and serves as a testing ground for new ideas. The Advisory Council is made up of prominent governmental or intergovernmental individuals with extensive diplomatic experience in fields related to peace and security.

Photo Credits: Interpeace.

Ambassador Bhatia is Singapore’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Office in Geneva and the United Nations Office in Vienna, resident in Geneva.  Ambassador Bhatia is concurrently Resident Representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency and Permanent Representative to the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test Ban Treaty Organization.

Ambassador Bhatia joined the Foreign Service in 1996 and has served in various capacities on issues covering Southeast Asia, Middle East and the United Nations in the Ministry’s headquarters.  He served overseas as First Secretary in Singapore’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York, from 1999 to 2003, and as an Alternate Representative for Singapore on the United Nations Security Council from 2001 to 2002.  In 2006, he was appointed as the first Chargé d’Affaires in the Singapore Embassy in Doha, Qatar where he served until 2011.

He was Singapore’s Consul-General in Dubai from September 2011 to December 2012.  Ambassador Bhatia was Singapore’s first resident Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates from January 2013 to December 2016.  He served as Director-General Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia from January 2017 to May 2019. (Source: Ministry of Foreign Affairs Sigapore)

Photo credits: Interpeace.