Gail Alexan­der

For­mer PNM min­is­ters Ed­mund Dil­lon and Lovell Fran­cis, and re­tired Fi­nance Min­istry per­ma­nent sec­re­tary Vish­nu Dhan­paul, are among sev­er­al am­bas­sadors who have been ap­point­ed to high pro­file mis­sions over­seas.

The For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs Min­istry yes­ter­day an­nounced the ap­point­ments.

Dil­lon will serve as T&T’s am­bas­sador to the Bo­li­var­i­an Re­pub­lic of Venezuela.

Fran­cis will be T&T’s am­bas­sador to the Re­pub­lic of South Africa.

Dhan­paul will be T&T’s High Com­mis­sion­er to the Unit­ed King­dom of Great Britain and North­ern Ire­land.

Al­so ap­point­ed were in­ter­na­tion­al af­fairs ex­pert Anal­isa Low, as T&T’s am­bas­sador to the Peo­ple’s Re­pub­lic of Chi­na and for­mer ca­reer diplo­mat Ger­ard Greene as T&T’s Am­bas­sador to the Fed­er­a­tive Re­pub­lic of Brazil.

For­eign Af­fairs Min­is­ter Dr Amery Browne pre­sent­ed in­stru­ments of ap­point­ment to the five yes­ter­day.

Dil­lon, is a for­mer Chief of De­fence Staff of the T&T De­fence Force, for­mer Min­is­ter of Hous­ing and Ur­ban De­vel­op­ment (2018-2020), for­mer Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty (2015 to 2018) and for­mer Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment for Point Fortin in the last PNM ad­min­is­tra­tion.

Dhan­paul is a well-known re­tired pub­lic ser­vant who served in var­i­ous ca­pac­i­ties in T&T’s Pub­lic Ser­vice. His ca­reer, span­ning sev­er­al decades, in­cludes as Per­ma­nent Sec­re­tary - at var­i­ous points - in the Min­istries of Fi­nance, En­er­gy and En­er­gy In­dus­tries and Pub­lic Util­i­ties.

Fran­cis was a for­mer Min­is­ter of State in the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion (2015 to 2020) and for­mer Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment for Moru­ga/Table­land.

Low has ex­pe­ri­ence man­ag­ing bi­lat­er­al agree­ments and pol­i­cy mat­ters and had al­so been in­ter­na­tion­al af­fairs of­fi­cer at the Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty dur­ing her ca­reer.

Greene is a for­mer ca­reer diplo­mat with over 35 years of ex­pe­ri­ence in T&T’s For­eign Ser­vice, where he served in var­i­ous ca­pac­i­ties in­clud­ing for­mer­ly serv­ing in the po­si­tion of Coun­sel­lor at the T&T Em­bassy in Brazil dur­ing 1996-1999.

Browne in­formed the new­ly-ap­point­ed heads of the var­i­ous mis­sions that they will be guid­ed by the Gov­ern­ment’s pol­i­cy frame­work, in their work to deep­en T&T’s bi­lat­er­al and mul­ti­lat­er­al part­ner­ships, as they seek to project and ad­vance the coun­try’s glob­al in­ter­ests in the in­ter­na­tion­al are­na.

Yes­ter­day’s ap­point­ments were the lat­est af­ter the min­istry al­so ap­point­ed Den­nis Fran­cis - the most se­nior for­eign ser­vice diplo­mat - to the Unit­ed Na­tions re­cent­ly.