Dr. Ton Thi Ngoc Huong was appointed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Viet Nam as the Ambassador/Permanent Representative of Viet Nam to ASEAN, starting her term from May 2024.
Her previous position was Director-General of the Foreign Services Training Center at the Diplomatic Academy of Viet Nam from December 2021 to April 2024.
For most of her diplomatic career, she has been with the ASEAN Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She has diverse experience on ASEAN, including, among others, having served Viet Nam’s chairmanship of ASEAN for three times in 2000-2001, 2010, and 2020; assisted in the Eminent Persons’ Group and the High-Level Task Force on the drafting of the ASEAN Charter, the High-level Legal Experts’ Group on Follow-up to the ASEAN Charter (HLEG) and handling Viet Nam’s coordinatorship of ASEAN’s Dialogue Relations with several partners. She was Assistant Director-General from April 2009, Deputy Director-General of the ASEAN Department from December 2010 to December 2013, and from January 2018 to November 2021.
She was posted to the Embassy of Viet Nam in Kuala Lumpur from 2014-2017, being Minister-Counsellor and Deputy Chief of Mission.
Her major research interests are on ASEAN, regional affairs, and multilateral diplomacy.
She graduated from the Ha Noi University of Foreign Studies (with distinction) and the National Economics University of Ha Noi. She earned a Master Degree in International Public Policy at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and a Ph.D. degree at the Diplomatic Academy of Viet Nam in International Relations.