Former Permanent Secretary of the Foreign Ministry, The Republic of Cyprus

Mr Zackheos has served as Director of various Divisions in the Foreign Ministry, including the Political Affairs Division and the Economic Affairs Division. He also served as Director of the Office of the Permanent Secretary. Within the framework of his duties as Political and Economic Affairs Director at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs he played a substantive role in the formulation and implementation of Cyprus’ foreign policy on the Middle East, Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.

In the course of his service as Permanent Representative in Geneva, as well as in New York, Mr Zackheos was Chairman of many committees and meetings and was head of the Cyprus delegation to many committee meetings such as those of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. He served as Chairman of the 4th Committee of the 54th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (Special Political and Decolonization Committee). As an active member of the Association of Small Island States (AOSIS), he organized the AOSIS meeting on Energy and Sustainable Development in Nicosia in January 2001.

In the long course of his service, Mr. Zackheos participated in conferences abroad and represented Cyprus in sessions of the UN General Assembly, the Council of Europe, the Commonwealth and the Non-Aligned Movement. He was also the representative of Cyprus at the Meeting of Experts on Peaceful Settlement of Disputes held in 1978 in the framework of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Sotirios Zackheos was born in Nicosia in 1950. He is married to Agatha and has two children, Marilena and Constantinos. He speaks fluent English, French and Russian.