Sharif Ghalib

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Sharif Ghalib is the first Afghan diplomat to have represented Afghanistan in Canada.

Mr. Ghalib was appointed by the Interim Administration headed by Hamid Karzai as Afghanistan’s only representative and chief negotiator on the establishment of full bilateral diplomatic and consular relations between Afghanistan and Canada at resident-embassy level in April 2002.

The Embassy of Afghanistan was officially inaugurated on 29 October 2002 in Ottawa where Mr. Ghalib served as the first Charge d’Affaires, a.i., and later Minister Counsellor for the next three years.

In June 2003, Sharif Ghalib addressed the first Canadian military contingent at Petawawa Headquarters, to be deployed to Afghanistan as part of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

Drawing upon a successful initiative, the first of its kind, in late 2004 Sharif Ghalib oversaw the shipment to Afghanistan of more than $2.1 million worth of medicine and medical supplies donated by 14 Canadian drag maker and medical supply manufacturers, which was later signed into a multi-year program.

Sharif Ghalib joined the Afghan Foreign Service in 1994 and his diplomatic career started at the United Nations. He served for three consecutive office terms at the Permanent Mission of Afghanistan to the United Nations as Second Secretary, First Secretary and Counsellor from 1994 to 2002.

Sharif Ghalib had been a member of UNGA drafting committee of the annual resolutions on Afghanistan until 2001.

During his tenures, Mr. Ghalib has represented Afghanistan in numerous bilateral, regional and international meetings, conferences, and fora as a member and head of delegation, including the 50th UN Commemorative Meeting, the UN Millennium Summit, NAM Summit (Durban-South Africa), NAM Ministerial Conference (Cartagena-Colombia), FAO Summit (Rome-Italy), OIC Summit (Tehran-Iran), OIC Ministerial Conference (New York), ECO Ministerial Conference (Baku-Azerbaijan), G-77 Conference (Havana-Cuba), WTO Ministerial Meeting (New York), and ICAO Ministerial Conference (Montreal-Canada), as well as seven UNGA regular sessions in New York.

In 1996 Sharif Ghalib was a participant in the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Afghanistan in Washington, DC.

A member of the intra-Afghan London Conference, Sharif Ghalib attended, in his capacity, its successive deliberations on accentuating the national resistance through greater participation of the Afghanistan's intelligentsia worldwide, convened in the United Kingdom.

He was also part of the UN-sponsored arrangements for transition to the post-Bonn Interim Authority in Afghanistan in 2001.

Sharif Ghalib came to the United States under a USIA internship and exchange program in 1990, where he completed an international intensive career development program in Broadcast Journalism conducted by the Center for Foreign Journalists in Reston, Virginia. He later established and hosted ‘Free Afghanistan Broadcasting’, a multi-featured community TV show in New York, and served as the executive producer for the subsequent three years, during which he earned a certificate in Production and Editing from the Queens Public Access Television (QPTV).

Sharif Ghalib, also, was formerly broadcaster and anchor on national radio and television network prior to leaving Afghanistan.

Born in Kabul, Mr. Ghalib received his B.S. in law and political science from Kabul University, and pursued post-graduate studies, in international relations, at Virginia Theological University (VTU) from 1995 to 1997.

He and his wife have a daughter and a son.

[edit] External links

EMBASSY: Canada's Foreign Policy Newsweekly

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