Tharit Charungvat

Ambassador
Tharit Charungvat

Thai Ambassador Tharit Charungvat, South Africa, 2010
Ambassador of Thailand to the Republic of Turkey
Assumed office
October 2013
Ambassador of Thailand to the Federative Republic of Brazil
In office
2012–2013
Ambassador of Thailand to the Republic of South Africa
In office
2009–2012
Director-General, Department of Information, MFA-Thailand.
In office
2007–2009
Director-General, Department of South Asia, Middle East and African Affairs, MFA-Thailand.
In office
2006–2007
Ambassador Attached to the Ministry, MFA-Thailand.
In office
2004–2006
Consul-General, Royal Thai Consulate-General, Hong Kong.
In office
2003–2004
Personal details
Born Thailand
Nationality Thai
Spouse(s) Vithu Charungvat, one child
Alma mater The American University, Chulalongkorn University

Tharit Charungvat is a career diplomat with more than 30-years experience in the Thai Foreign Service. He currently serves as the Ambassador of Thailand to Turkey.

Career

Ambassador Tharit Charungvat first joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Thailand in 1980 as an Attaché in the ASEAN Department. After serving as Third and Second Secretary in the Policy and Planning Division of the Ministry, he was posted to the Thai Embassy in Brussels, Belgium from 1990 – 1994 as Second and then First Secretary responsible for Thai-European Community relations. He then returned to Thailand to serve as Counselor in the Department of Information before moving on in 1997 to begin 8 years of close association with China as the Director of Division III of the Department of East Asian Affairs, which oversees Chinese affairs. This was followed by postings in 1999 to the Royal Thai Consulate-General in Kunming, PRC as the Deputy Consul-General, and then to Hong Kong in 2003 as the Consul-General.

He returned to Thailand in 2004 to take up the post of Ambassador-at-Large at the Foreign Ministry, and over the next two years helped to lay a new ground work for the Ministry’s entry into the digital age of information management and connectivity. In 2006, he moved on to serve as the Director-General of the Department of South Asia, Middle East and African Affairs, overseeing Thailand’s bilateral and multilateral relations with more than eighty countries from the African continent though the Middle East to the Indian sub-continent. In 2007 he was appointed as Director-General of the Department of Information and the Official Spokesperson of the Ministry during a sensitive period in Thai-Cambodian relations.[1]

He would hold this post for two and half years until mid-2009 when he returned to familiar territory by being appointed Ambassador of Thailand to the Republic of South Africa and accredited to ten additional countries in the Southern African region, namely Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland Zaire and Zimbabwe. During his time in South Africa, he worked to promote and expand trade, tourism and people to people ties between Thailand and southern Africa.[2] Ambassador Charungvat then moved on at the beginning of 2012 to become Ambassador of Thailand to the Federative Republic of Brazil. Over one and a half years in Brazil, he worked to further enhance trade, business and investment ties between Thailand and Brazil.[3][4] In late-2013 he was appointed to his next posting as Ambassador of Thailand to the Republic of Turkey.

Presenting credentials to South African President Jacob Zuma, 1 October 2010
Presenting credentials to Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, 23 February 2012
Speaking at a Seminar on Trade Agreements.,[5] São Paulo, Brazil, 29 August 2013

Chronology

Year Event
1980 Joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Thailand (MFA) as an Attaché in the ASEAN Department
1984 Third Secretary, Office of the Permanent Secretary, MFA-Thailand
1986 Third Secretary, Policy and Planning Division, Office of the Permanent Secretary, MFA-Thailand
1990 Second Secretary, Royal Thai Embassy, Brussels
1995 Counselor, Public and Cultural Affairs Division, Department of Information, MFA-Thailand
1996 Secretariat to Department, Department of East Asian Affairs, MFA-Thailand
1997 Director, Division III, Department of East Asian Affairs, MFA-Thailand
1999 Deputy Consul-General, Royal Thai Consulate-General, Kunming, PRC
2003 Consul-General, Royal Thai Consulate-General, Hong Kong
2004 Ambassador Attached to the Ministry, Office of the Permanent Secretary, MFA-Thailand
2006 Director-General, Department of South Asian, Middle East and African Affairs, MFA-Thailand
2007 Director-General, Department of Information, MFA-Thailand
2009 Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Thailand to the Republic of South Africa
2012 Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Thailand to the Federative Republic of Brazil
2013 Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Thailand to the Republic of Turkey

Education and personal life

Ambassador Charungvat earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in International Relations from Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand, and a Master of Arts degree in International Affairs – Asian Study and International Economic Development from The American University in Washington, D.C., U.S.A. He also completed Thailand’s National Defence College curriculum in 2004.

Ambassador Charungvat is married to Mrs. Vithu Charungvat with one child.

Decorations received

Year Decoration
2013 Order of Rio Branco, Class Grand Cross (Ordem de Rio Branco, Grã Cruz) (Brazil)
2009 Knight Grand Cordon (Special Class) of the Most Noble Order of the Crown of Thailand (มหาวชิรมงกูฎ)
2006 Knight Grand Cross (First Class) of the Most Exalted Order of the White Elephant (ประถมาภรณ์ช้างเผือก)
2005 The Chakra Mala Medal (เหรียญจักรพรรดิมาลา)
2003 Knight Grand Cross (First Class) of the Most Noble Order of the Crown of Thailand (ประถมาภรณ์มงกุฏไทย)
1999 Knight Commander (Second Class) of the Most Exalted Order of the White Elephant (ทวิติยาภรณ์ช้างเผือก)
1994 Knight Commander (Second Class) of the Most Noble Order of the Crown of Thailand (ทวิติยาภรณ์มงกุฏไทย)
1992 Commander (Third Class) of the Most Exalted Order of the White Elephant (ตริตาภรณ์ช้างเผือก)
1988 Commander (Third Class) of the Most Noble Order of the Crown of Thailand (ตริตาภรณ์มงกุฏไทย)
1985 Companion (Fourth Class) of the Most Exalted Order of the White Elephant (จัตุรถาภรณ์ช้างเผือก)

See also

References


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