Mikhail Khvostov was appointed Ambassador of Belarus to the United States and to Mexico (non resident) on March 21, 2003. He arrived in Washington, D.C. on May 16, 2003 andpresented his Letters of Credence to President George W. Bush on September 8. Khvostov was born June 27, 1949, in Vitebsk Region, Belarus (then Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic, a part of the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics). He earned an undergraduate degree in Roman Linguistics at the Minsk State Institute of Foreign Languages, and a graduate degree in International Law at the Belarusian State University. Before joining the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus, Khvostov held various positions at the Belarusian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. After joining the Foreign Ministry, Khvostov served for nine years, from 1982 to 1991, in the Protocol and Consular Department of the Ministry. He was posted to the U.S. from 1991 to 1993, initially as First Secretary of the Permanent Mission of Belarus to the United Nations in New York, and from 1992 to 1993, as First Secretary of the Belarusian Embassy in Washington, D.C. He returned to Minsk from 1993 to 1997, first in the positions of Director of the State Protocol Department and Director of Legal and Treaties Department, and, from 1994 to 1997, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. Khvostov returned to North America to serve as Ambassador to Canada, and Representative of Belarus to the International Civil Aviation Organization from 1997 to 2000. Returning again to Belarus in 2000, he served that year as Advisor to the President for Foreign Policy Issues and then as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, from 2000 to 2003. At the present time, he is also a Member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, Netherlands. Khvostov speaks English, French and Russian.