KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 9 — The Foreign Affairs Ministry announced today it has appointed former Padang Rengas lawmaker Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz as the country’s ambassador to the United States.

The appointment was made official in front of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong at Istana Negara alongside nine other new ambassadors.

The ceremony was attended by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Datuk Mohamad Alamin and Deputy Secretary General for Bilateral Affairs Datuk Norman Muhamad.

In 2021, Nazri had announced his retirement from politics after 26 years in the Dewan Rakyat.

Since last year, Nazri was speculated to be appointed as the country’s ambassador to either Switzerland or the US.

However, he reportedly rejected the offer to become an envoy to Switzerland as he was still an MP.

Meanwhile, Datuk Syed Md Hasrin Tengku Hussin @ Syed Hussin has been appointed Malaysian ambassador to Indonesia.

Syed has joined the Foreign Ministry since 1994 and served as Malaysia's Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York since 2019.

He was also the former ambassador to the United Arab Emirates back in 2017 until 2019.

Malaysian former ambassador to Italy Datuk Abdul Malik Melvin Castelino Anthony has been reassigned as the ambassador to the Philippines.

Hendy Assan, the former ambassador to Uzbekistan, was appointed as Malaysia’s ambassador to the Holy See in Vatican.

Others were Hafizah Abdullah, who was appointed as Malaysia’s ambassador to Sweden, Gloria Corina Peter Tiwet (Brazil), Suzilah Mohd Sidek (the Czech Republic), Amarjit Singh (Timor-Leste), Alauddin Mohd Nor (Kuwait), and Ruzaimi Mohamad as the High Commissioner to Kenya.