(VOVworld) – Vietnam has, for the first time, had a candidate to run for a post in the International Law Commission, a prestigious global legal forum in charge of compiling international treaties including the 1958 Geneva Conventions on the Law of the Sea.

Ambassador Nguyen Hong Thao

An official campaign was launched in February for Associate Professor and Ambassador Nguyen Hong Thao to run for post. The move took place after the Vietnamese delegation to the United Naitons, the World trade Organization, and other international organizations in Geneva sent a diplomatic note to introduce him to delegations of other countries.

Members of the 34-member commission are elected every 5 years with the upcoming election scheduled to take place at the UN General Assembly late this year. Its experts operate independently against the countries which introduced them.

Ambassador Nguyen Hong Thao is an expert in international law. He used to be Deputy-Director of the National Border Committee, head of the negotiation delegations of border agreements with neighboring countries, and a legal advisor to the 2012 draft maritime law.

He was Vietnamese Ambassador to Malaysia and now Vietnamese Ambassador to Kuwait.