Since the end of the Cold War, Vietnam has maintained one of the highest growth rates in the world, but it has encountered many new foreign policy challenges. Ambassador Nguyen Phuong Nga, permanent representative of Vietnam to the United Nations, will speak on "Vietnam in the 21st Century" Tuesday, Nov. 15, at 4:30 p.m. in Philip Lewis Auditorium, G76 Goldwin Smith Hall.
Nga will discuss the work of Vietnam’s Permanent Mission to the U.N. as well as Vietnam’s broader foreign policy. She will focus in particular on the territorial dispute in the South China Sea, environmental diplomacy and international trade and cooperation.
From 2011 to 2014, Nga served as Vietnam’s vice minister of foreign affairs, as the first woman to hold this position. Prior to that, she was the ministry’s spokesperson and worked in its department of information. She served at the Vietnamese embassies in Thailand, Belgium and Luxembourg, and in Vietnam’s mission to the European Union.
Nga received her master’s degree from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations and management training from the Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics and Public Administration.
The ambassador comes to Cornell at the invitation of Voices on Vietnam, a semi-annual guest speaker series that features leading scholars, journalists, politicians, activists and historians. The initiative is spearheaded by faculty, students and staff seeking to bring a diversity of voices to campus to enrich the field of Vietnamese studies and explore contemporary issues.
The lecture is cosponsored by the Southeast Asia Program and the Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies, both part of the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies; the departments of Asian studies, government and history in the College of Arts and Sciences; the Society for the Humanities; and the Office of the Vice Provost for International Affairs.
