Bakhtiyar Gulyamov presented his credentials as ambassador to the United States to President Barack Obama on July 18, 2013. It was the third ambassadorial posting for the career civil servant.
Gulyamov was born February 18, 1964, in Moscow. He graduated from Tashkent State University in 1986 with a degree in the history of Arab countries and later attended the Academy on State and Social Construction, an institution for the education of government officials, earning a Master’s degree in international relations in 1999.
In 1986, Gulyamov began a three-year tour in the Soviet army, working as an interpreter. After his military service, Gulyamov worked for the Tashkent Technical Institute as an inspector, and in 1991 took a position in the Uzbekyengilsanoat, an Uzbek business promotion organization.
Gulyamov joined Uzbekistan’s Foreign Ministry in 1992, working in the consular department. In 1995, he landed his first overseas posting, as second secretary in Uzbekistan’s embassy in London. Gulyamov served there for three years before returning home in 1998 to be first secretary in the ministry’s Department of Political Analysis and Forecasting.
In 2001, Gulyamov was posted abroad once again, this time as first secretary in his nation’s embassy in Japan. He returned home in 2003 to become head of the Foreign Ministry department dealing with the United Nations and other international organizations.
Gulyamov’s first ambassadorial post came in 2005, when he was chosen to head Uzbekistan’s delegation to Germany. Eventually, he was named ambassador to Switzerland, Sweden and the Czech Republic as well, serving in those posts from Berlin. He moved to Brussels in 2010 to head the Uzbek mission to Belgium, as well as be his country’s representative to the European Union and to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
Since being posted to Washington in 2013, Gulyamov has spent much of his time promoting U.S.-Uzbekistan trade. He has taken criticism for his country’s practice of using child labor to plant and harvest crops, as well as other human rights violations. Gulyamov was also accredited as his country’s ambassador to Canada in March 2014.
Gulyamov is married with two children. He speaks Arabic, English and Russian.
-Steve Straehley
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