KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 20): Deputy Yang di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Nazrin Shah today presented instruments of appointment to seven Malaysian envoys assigned to Malaysian missions abroad, at the Istana Negara.

They are Datuk Kennedy Jawan, the Foreign Ministry deputy secretary-general (multilateral affairs) who will be the Ambassador to Japan; Datuk Mohd Ashri Muda, the Foreign Ministry chief of protocol, who will be the Ambassador to South Korea.

Datuk Azmil Mohd Zabidi, director-general of the Southeast Asia Regional Centre for Counter-Terrorism (SEARCCT), who will be the Ambassador to the United States; Ismail Salam, the Foreign Ministry undersecretary for the European Division, who will be the High Commissioner to Brunei Darussalam.

Nur Ashikin Mohd Taib, the High Commissioner to Bangladesh, who will be the Ambassador to Sweden; Eldeen Husaini Mohd Hashim, the Foreign Ministry undersecretary for the Southeast Asian Division, who will be Ambassador to Cambodia; and John K. Samuel, the Foreign Ministry undersecretary for the Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs Division, who will be the Ambassador to Finland.

At the same function, three foreign envoys presented their letters of credentials to Sultan Nazrin Shah, who is performing the functions of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong until the end of this year. They are the Ambassador of Spain, Jose Miguel Corvinos Lafuente; Ambassador of Senegal, Fatou-Danielle Diagne; and Ambassador of Lithuania, Gediminas Varvuolis (resident in Tokyo).