President Halimah Yacob virtually received the credentials of the Ambassadors of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, the Republic of Azerbaijan and Nepal on 4th August 2021.

H.E. Faizullah Zaki Ibrahimi Ambassador of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan

AMBASSADOR Faizullah Zaki Ibrahimi was appointed Ambassador-designate of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to the Republic of Singapore (resident in Jakarta) in August Prior to his appointment, Ambassador Ibrahimi was the Afghan Minister of Labor, Social Affairs, Martyrs and Disabled from 2017 to 2019.

Before his ministerial appointment, he was deputy National Security Advisor in the Office of the National Security Council and had served as Senior Presidential Advisor to President Ashraf Ghani. He was also an elected representative to the Afghan Parliament from 2005 to 2010 after a stint in the private sector.

Ambassador Ibrahimi holds a bachelor’s degree in Geology from Kabul University. He is married with four sons and one daughter. He speaks Dari, Pashto, Uzbek, Turkish, Russian and English fluently.

H.E. Jalal Sabir Oglu Mirzayev Ambassador of Republic of Azerbaijan

Mr. Jalal Sabir Oglu Mirzayev, Ambassador of the Republic of Azerbaijan to the Republic of Singapore, is a career diplomat with over 20 years of experience in bilateral and multilateral diplomacy.

Mr. Mirzayev joined the Azerbaijan Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1999. He served at the Azerbaijan Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York from 2001 to 2003, and at the Azerbaijan Mission to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Brussels from 2003 to 2005. He joined the First (Western) Territorial Department of the Azerbaijan Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2005, before being appointed as First Secretary at the Azerbaijan Embassy in Malaysia in 2007. He returned to the First (Western) Territorial Department of the Azerbaijan Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2009 as Head of Division. Mr. Mirzayev also served as Deputy Permanent Representative to the Council of Europe in Strasbourg from 2011 to 2015, and later assumed the position of Deputy Head of the Americas Department of the Azerbaijan Ministry of Foreign Affairs in October 2015. He served as Chargé d’affaires in the Netherlands from September 2017 until his appointment as Ambassador to Indonesia in September 2019. He has also served as Ambassador to ASEAN since 2020.

Mr. Mirzayev holds a Master of Arts in International Relations from Baku State University. He is married with three children, and speaks English, French and Russian.

H.E. GANESH PRASAD DHAKAL Ambassador of Nepal

H.E. Ganesh Prasad Dhakal has been Nepal’s Ambassador to Thailand since June 2019, with residence in Bangkok. Ambassador Dhakal is concurrently accredited to Singapore, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. He also serves as Nepal’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) and is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Asian Institute of Technology.

Ambassador Dhakal is a career diplomat, having joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Nepal in 1996. Prior to his current appointments, Ambassador Dhakal was the Joint Secretary and Head of the Northeast Asia Division at the Ministry’s headquarters from 2016 to 2019. His other appointments at headquarters include Director-General of the Consular Services Department (2015 – 2016); and Joint Secretary and Head of the Central Asia, West Asia and Africa Division (2015).

Ambassador Dhakal’s previous overseas postings were in the Nepalese Embassies to Qatar (2013 – 2015), Berlin (2007 – 2012), and Russia (1999 – 2003).

Ambassador Dhakal holds a master’s degree in Public Administration from Tribhuvan University, Nepal. He is married and has two children.