Permanent Representative of Thailand to the United Nations
Prior to assuming his appointment, Virachai was Ambassador of Thailand to the Netherlands, beginning in 2009, after serving his country in a variety of international economic, legal and diplomatic capacities.
Beginning his diplomatic service in 1987 in his country’s Department of Political Affairs, Virachai progressed through posts in the Department of Treaties and Legal Affairs, eventually becoming Director-General of the Department of International Economic Affairs, in 2007.
Among Virachai’s experiences in international litigation for Thailand, he served as the country’s Agent in the International Court of Justice for the case concerning the Temple of Preah Vihear (Cambodia vs. Thailand), for which a judgement was rendered in 2013.
He was also a member of his Government’s legal counsel in several disputes heard by the World Trade Organization (WTO), from 1998 to 2003, and served as a panellist and arbitrator for WTO on a range of cases.
Virachai served on the Board of Directors of the Import-Export Bank of Thailand, from 2006 to 2007, and on the Board of the Malaysia-Thailand Joint Authority for petroleum resources in the overlapping claim area in the Gulf of Thailand, from 2007 to 2009.
The author of a number of works on settlement of trade disputes, Virachai received his doctorate in law in 1986 from the University of Paris (Pantheon-Sorbonne) in France.