Raymond Serge Bale, born in 1949, is a Congolese diplomat who has been Congo-Brazzaville's Permanent Representative to the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

from 2008 to 2021. He is the current ambassador of

Republic of the Congo The Republic of the Congo, also known as Congo-Brazzaville, the Congo Republic or simply the Congo (the last ambiguously also referring to the neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo), is a country located on the western coast of Central ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

Education

He received a postgraduate diploma in

social sciences Social science (often rendered in the plural as the social sciences) is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of society, societies and the Social relation, relationships among members within those societies. The term was former ...

from the

University of Leicester The University of Leicester ( ) is a public university, public research university based in Leicester, England. The main campus is south of the city centre, adjacent to Victoria Park, Leicester, Victoria Park. The university's predecessor, Univ ...

in the United Kingdom, and later studied government and politics at St. John's University in New York.

Diplomatic career

Early career

Before entering the diplomatic service, he worked as a teacher. Bale began his diplomatic career in 1981 as Head of the Division of the Joint Intergovernmental Commission at the Congolese Ministry of Cooperation. In 1982, he was appointed Director of Bilateral Cooperation at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. From 1985 to 1992, he served as a counsellor at the Permanent Mission of the Republic of the Congo to the United Nations. During that time, while the Congo held a non-permanent seat on the

United Nations Security Council The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN) and is charged with ensuring international peace and security, recommending the admission of new UN members to the General Assembly, an ...

, he was a member of the Congolese delegation to the Council.

Senior roles

From 1994 to 1998, Bale served as Deputy Secretary-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in charge of political affairs, multilateral cooperation, and Francophone affairs. He later became Secretary-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Cooperation and Francophone Affairs (2003-2005), and also served as Inspector-General for Diplomatic and Consular Missions. Between 2002 and 2005, he was a member of the Steering Committee of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD). He was appointed Ambassador to

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

and served concurrently as Permanent Representative to the

African Union The African Union (AU) is a continental union of 55 member states located on the continent of Africa. The AU was announced in the Sirte Declaration in Sirte, Libya, on 9 September 1999, calling for the establishment of the African Union. The b ...

and to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, based in Addis Ababa, from 2005 to 2008.

Permanent Representative to the United Nations

In 2008, After

Basile Ikouébé Basile Ikouébé (born 1 July 1946 in Congo-Brazzaville) is a Congolese former ambassador who is Special representative of the President of the African Union Commission for the Great Lakes region, Head of the Liaison Office for Burundi since Octob ...

was appointed as Minister of Foreign Affairs in 2007, Bale was appointed to replace him as Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York. He presented his credentials to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon the same year. He also served as a member of the United Nations Secretary-General’s Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters from 1997 to 1999.

Ambassador of Congo to India

In 2021, he was appointed

Ambassador An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or so ...

Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Congo to the Republic of India by Presidential Decree No. 2021-499 of December 6, 2021 and officially presented his credentials to the President of India Droupadi Murmu, at Rashtrapati Bhavan on September 14, 2022.

Personal life

Raymond Serge Bale is married and has six children.

References

Living people Republic of the Congo diplomats Permanent representatives of the Republic of the Congo to the United Nations Ambassadors of the Republic of the Congo to Ethiopia Year of birth missing (living people) {{RCongo-bio-stub