Biographical Note

BIO/3385
GA/DIS/3195
14 September 2001

ANDRÉ ERDOS OF HUNGARY ELECTED CHAIRMAN
OF FIRST COMMITTEE

NEW YORK, 13 September (UN Headquarters) -- André Erdos, the Permanent Representative of Hungary to the United Nations, was elected Chairman of the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) today for the fifty-sixth session of the General Assembly.

Mr. Erdos was appointed Hungary’s representative in September 1997. Prior to that appointment, from 1994, he was Deputy State Secretary for Foreign Affairs in charge of multilateral questions. In that capacity, he addressed such issues as disarmament, the question of national minorities, regional cooperation in Central and Eastern Europe, as well as matters relating to the United Nations, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

In 2000, Mr. Erdos was Chairman of the Drafting Committee of the Review and Extension Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). In 1995 he served as Vice-President of the Conference. From 1995 to 1999, he was a member of the Secretary-General's Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters and was appointed Chairman in 1998.

Mr. Erdos served an earlier appointment as Hungary’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations from 1990 to 1994, representing his country in the Security Council in 1992 and 1993. He was a member of Hungary’s delegation to the General Assembly sessions in 1984, 1985, and 1989. He served in his country's Mission to the United Nations from 1978 to 1983. In 1982 he was special assistant to the President of the thirty-seventh session of the General Assembly, Imre Hollai (Hungary).

Mr. Erdos first joined the Hungarian Foreign Ministry in 1965, where he worked in the Arab and Asian departments. From 1968 to 1972, he was Hungary's Attaché in Morocco. During the 1970s and 1980s, he served in various capacities in delegations to meetings of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE).

Mr. Erdos holds degrees from the Moscow State Institute for International Relations and the Budapest School of Political Sciences. Born in Algiers in 1941, he is married and has a daughter.

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