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UNITED NATIONS - / www.MaximsNews.com,
UN/ -
July 2006- DR. SURAKIART
SATHIRATHAI is Deputy
Prime Minister of
Thailand, where he
oversees foreign
affairs, education, and
culture. The Royal Thai
Government has nominated
Dr. Surakiart as
Thailand's candidate for
United Nations Secretary
General when H.E. Mr.
Kofi Annan completes his
term at the end of
2006.
The
Leaders of the
Association of South
East Asian Nations
(ASEAN- comprising
Brunei Darussalam,
Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao
PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar,
Philippines, Singapore,
Thailand, Viet Nam) have
also endorsed Dr.
Surakiart's candidature.
An expert in
international law,
finance, and economic
development, Dr.
Surakiart has over
twenty years of
experience in academia,
government, and
business, including
terms as Foreign
Minister, Finance
Minister, and policy
advisor to the Prime
Minister.
Dr.
Surakiart also has
significant private
sector experience. He
has been Chairman of a
Thai commercial bank and
head of the Thai
national petroleum
enterprise, as well as
founding partner of a
leading commercial law
firm.
Dr. Surakiart has a
record of successful
management reform in
difficult circumstances,
having spearheaded the
reform and privatization
of major Thai
enterprises, reformed
the operations of the
Thai Foreign Ministry
and having instituted
major curricular changes
at the Faculty of Law at
Chulalongkorn University
in Bangkok.
He has deep
experience in
international
negotiation, both
diplomatic and
commercial, and a record
of strengthening
multilateral cooperation
across Asia.
Dr.
Surakiart was born in
1958 in Bangkok,
Thailand. His father was
a well-respected
official in the Thai
Ministry of Finance and
was sent to restructure
a commercial bank in the
past, and his mother was
a renowned Professor in
French literature. Both
his parents were
French-educated. He grew
up in Bangkok, where
from an early age he
took an interest in
issues related to
democracy. Like many
young Thais, Dr.
Surakiart spent a period
in a Buddhist monastery,
and his Buddhist
upbringing remains the
touchstone of his
personal philosophy and
ethic.
Dr.
Surakiart completed a
degree with 1st Class -
Gold Medal in Law from
Chulalongkorn University
in Bangkok, then
continued his studies of
law and international
economics in the United
States, where he
obtained two masters
degrees: a Masters in
Law (LL.M.) from Harvard
with a thesis on human
rights and another in
law and diplomacy from
the Fletcher School of
Law and Diplomacy, Tufts
University (M.A.L.D.).
He was the first Thai to
earn a doctorate in law
(S.J.D.) from Harvard
University.
Dr.
Surakiart's doctoral
thesis, "An
Understanding of the
Relationship Among
International Legal
Discourse About
Development, Third World
Countries, and
International
Peace," (1985)
explored the global
trade law regime from
the perspective of the
third world. Two years
later, he co-edited a
book, "Third World
Attitudes Toward
International Law: An
Introduction," with
Professor Frederick
Snyder which was
published widely, and
has ever since been an
active participant in
academic debate.
Dr.
Surakiart became
Thailand's youngest
Finance Minister under
Prime Minister Banharn
Silpa-archa, a position
he held from July of
1995 to May of 1996.
Inheriting a national
economy beset by the
structural challenges
that ultimately exposed
it to the Thai financial
crisis, Dr. Surakiart
designed and implemented
reforms that, while
deeply unpopular, moved
the economy in the right
direction and today have
become an essential part
of Thailand's economic
policy.
Prime
Minister Thaksin
Shinawatra appointed Dr.
Surakiart as Minister of
Foreign Affairs in March
2001, a moment when the
international community,
stung by the Asian
financial crisis, had
relatively little
confidence in
Thailand.
As
Foreign Minister, Dr.
Surakiart reoriented
Thai foreign policy
towards intra-Asian
cooperation, vigorously
promoting a
"prosper thy
neighbor" policy of
regional economic
development. In the
process, Dr. Surakiart
changed the modalities
of intra-Asian diplomacy
by building cooperative
networks among an
extremely diverse set of
nations called Asia
Cooperation Dialogue (ACD).
He also played an
innovative role in
health and welfare
issues such as HIV/AIDS
and landmines, and was
involved in several
sensitive peace and
collective security
negotiations in the
region.
Through
his tenure as Minister
of Foreign Affairs, Dr.
Surakiart reinforced
Thailand's ties to
traditional allies and
neighbors through
conferences and
initiatives by ASEAN and
other regional
formations, and
increasing contact and
trade among Thailand,
Laos and Cambodia in
particular. Where
necessary and
appropriate, Dr.
Surakiart built new
partnerships for
specific purposes.
As
Foreign Minister Dr.
Surakiart focused on a
variety of international
health and welfare
issues. For example, his
close contacts with
Chinese officials
enabled Dr. Surakiart to
respond rapidly to SARS,
setting up a high-level
meeting between ASEAN
leaders and China within
days after news of the
crisis broke. Of crucial
importance, Dr.
Surakiart was
instrumental in
convincing Chinese
Premier Wen Jiabao to
attend, in what became
his first trip abroad as
Prime Minister, thus
defusing potential
tensions between China
and ASEAN nations over
the epidemic, and
permitting construction
of cooperative networks
that helped head off a
potential global health
crisis.
Dr.
Surakiart also played a
key role in
peace-building efforts
in Asia. By building
trust with his immediate
neighbors, he was able
to settle long-simmering
border disputes between
Thailand, Cambodia, and
Laos. Approached by
Norway and all factions
in Sri Lanka and trusted
as a fellow Buddhist by
the Sri Lankan
leadership, he offered
Thailand as a venue for
the Sri Lankan peace
talks, which were led by
Norway. Later, he
organized a series of
meetings in Bangkok
designed to create
dialogue between Myanmar
and the international
community and promote
democracy in Myanmar, an
initiative that led to
the "Bangkok
Process" for reform
in Myanmar.
Following
the Bali bombings and
the attempted downing of
an airliner in Kenya,
Dr. Surakiart led the
initiative under which
APEC decided to ban
shoulder-launched
surface-to-air missiles
("MANPADs").
Key to this effort was
Dr. Surakiart's decision
to frame the issue as a
threat to civil aviation
and thus to tourism and
economic
development.
Before
the introduction of the
six-party North Korea
talks, moreover, Dr.
Surakiart sought to
prevent North Korean
isolation and keep the
channels of
communication open by
working with ASEAN
through his initiative
of "friends of the
Chair of ARF" to
urge and convince North
Korea to attend the
ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF),
which is the security
forum for ASEAN and
allies, though he
stepped aside this
effort when the
six-party talks began.
Dr.
Surakiart is fluent in
Thai and English, and
proficient in French. He
is married to Thanpuying
* Dr. Suthawan
Sathirathai, who holds a
doctorate in economics
from the University of
Cambridge (UK), a
graduate degree in
economics from Tufts
University (USA), and an
engineering degree from
Chulalongkorn
University. They have
one son, Mr. Santitarn
Sathirathai, born in
Boston, a Bachelor and
Masters graduate of the
London School of
Economics who recently
left the Thai Ministry
of Finance to continue
his postgraduate studies
at The John F. Kennedy
School of Government,
Harvard University. Dr.
Surakiart's favorite
sports are badminton,
bicycling and swimming.
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