Wunna Maung Lwin ( my, ဝဏ္ဏမောင်လွင်; born 30 May 1952,) is a Burmese politician and incumbent

Minister of Foreign Affairs A foreign affairs minister or minister of foreign affairs (less commonly minister for foreign affairs) is generally a cabinet minister in charge of a state's foreign policy and relations. The formal title of the top official varies between co ...

, appointed by

Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services The commander-in-chief of Defence Services () is the commanding officer of the Tatmadaw, the armed forces of Myanmar. Since a state of emergency was declared following the 2021 military coup d'état, the commander-in-chief has been the highes ...

Min Aung Hlaing Min Aung Hlaing ( my, မင်းအောင်လှိုင် abbreviated: MAL ; born 3 July 1956) also known as Alaungsithu is a Burmese politician and army general who has ruled Myanmar as the chairman of the State Administration Co ...

after the

2021 Myanmar coup d'état A coup d'état in Myanmar began on the morning of 1 February 2021, when democratically elected members of the country's ruling party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), were deposed by the Tatmadaw—Myanmar's military—which then ves ...

. He previously served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs from March 2011 to March 2016. He is a retired colonel in the Myanmar Army.

Early life and education

Wunna Maung Lwin was born in

Thaton Thaton (; mnw, သဓီု ) is a town in Mon State, in southern Myanmar on the Tenasserim plains. Thaton lies along the National Highway 8 and is also connected by the National Road 85. It is 230 km south east of Yangon and 70 k ...

Mon State Mon State ( my, မွန်ပြည်နယ်, ; mnw, တွဵုရးဍုင်မန်, italics=no) is an administrative division of Myanmar. It lies between Kayin State to the east, the Andaman Sea to the west, Bago Region to th ...

on 30 May 1954. He graduated from the 16th intake of the Defence Services Academy in 1971.

Career

He joined the

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

Diplomatic service Diplomatic service is the body of diplomats and foreign policy officers maintained by the government of a country to communicate with the governments of other countries. Diplomatic personnel obtains diplomatic immunity when they are accredited to o ...

in 2000, after a long career in the Myanmar Armed Forces from 1971 to 1998. Before he holds the current position, he served as

Director-General A director general or director-general (plural: ''directors general'', ''directors-general'', ''director generals'' or ''director-generals'' ) or general director is a senior executive officer, often the chief executive officer, within a governmen ...

of the

Ministry of Border Affairs (Myanmar) The Ministry of Border Affairs ( my, နယ်စပ်ရေးရာ ဝန်ကြီးဌာန, abbreviated MBA), formerly Ministry of Progress of Border Areas, National Races and Development Affairs is a ministry in the Government of My ...

from July 1998 to September 2000, Myanmar Ambassador to Israel from 2000 to 2001,

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

from 2001 to 2004,

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to ...

and EU from 2004 to 2007 and Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva,

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

from 2007 to 2011.

Foreign Minister

He served as the 19th

Foreign Minister A foreign affairs minister or minister of foreign affairs (less commonly minister for foreign affairs) is generally a cabinet minister in charge of a state's foreign policy and relations. The formal title of the top official varies between co ...

of Myanmar from 2011 to 2016.

Thein Sein Thein Sein ( my, သိန်းစိန်; IPA: ; born 20 April 1944) is a Burmese politician and retired general in the Myanmar Army who served as the eighth President of Myanmar from 2011 to 2016. He previously served as Prime Minister ...

appointed him in his

cabinet Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to: Furniture * Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers * Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets * Filin ...

. Later he became the CEC member of USDP. In the 2020 general election, he lost to his opponent from NLD, Kyaw Htwe. But after 2021 coup,

appointed him as Foreign Minister. On 24 February, Wunna Maung Lwin met with Thailand Foreign Minister,

Don Pramudwinai Don Pramudwinai ( th, ดอน ปรมัตถ์วินัย, , ; born 25 January 1950) is a Thai diplomat serving as foreign minister of Thailand (2020). Early life and education Don attended Wat Suthiwararam and Suankularb Wittayalai ...

and Indonesia Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi in Thailand. He also met with Thailand Prime Minister,

Prayut Chan-o-cha Prayut Chan-o-cha (sometimes spelled Prayuth Chan-ocha; th, ประยุทธ์ จันทร์โอชา, ; born 21 March 1954) is a Thai politician and retired army officer who has served as the Prime Minister of Thailand since he ...

. This was the first foreign trip of the

military cabinet A military cabinet is any Cabinet (government), cabinet composed of members of the military. It may be an advisory body (staff) to a sovereign, head of government or other functionary, such as a minister of war, or it may be the executive cabinet of ...

member.

Personal life

Wunna Maung Lwin is married to Lin Lin Tin, the youngest daughter of Thakhin Ba Tin, a member of the

Dobama Asiayone Dobama Asiayone ( my, တို့ဗမာအစည်းအရုံး, ''Dóbăma Ăsì-Ăyòun'', meaning ''We Burmans Association'', DAA), commonly known as the Thakhins ( my, သခင် ''sa.hkang'', lit. Lords), was a Burmese national ...

. He has three children, Tin Thitsa Lwin, Lin Marlar Lwin, and Lin Min Aung Lwin.

References

* , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Wunna Maung Lwin Living people Government ministers of Myanmar Defence Services Academy alumni 1952 births People from Mon State Foreign ministers of Myanmar Ambassadors of Myanmar to Israel Ambassadors of Myanmar to France Ambassadors of Myanmar to Belgium Permanent Representatives of Myanmar to the United Nations