His Excellency Umej Bhatia

His Excellency Umej Bhatia

Singapore Ambassador to the French Republic with concurrent accreditation to the Portuguese Republic

Umej Bhatia is a career Singapore diplomat who prior to his present appointment served as Singapore’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations (UN) Offices in Geneva and Vienna from 2019 to 2025, resident in Geneva. He was concurrently accredited as Permanent Representative to the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization and as Resident Representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna.

Mr Bhatia joined the Singapore Foreign Service in 1996 after beginning his career in broadcast journalism at the then Television Corporation of Singapore, where he produced and presented its flagship current affairs programme.

Over nearly three decades in public service, he has held appointments covering Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and the United Nations, both at headquarters and overseas.

His postings include First Secretary at Singapore’s Permanent Mission to the UN in New York (1999–2003), where he served as Alternate Representative on the UN Security Council (2001–2002); Chargé d’Affaires at the Singapore Embassy in Doha (2006–2011); Consul-General in Dubai (2011–2012); Singapore’s first resident Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates in Abu Dhabi (2013–2016); and Director-General for the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia at headquarters (2017–2019).

In addition to his diplomatic postings, Mr Bhatia served on the board of Singapore’s Infocomm Development Authority (International) from 2009 to 2012.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, he was a founding Co-Chair of the Friends of COVAX under the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator from 2020. He also served as Singapore’s Governor on the IAEA Board of Governors (2022–2024) and as a Council Member of the World Health Summit (2023–2024).

Mr Bhatia graduated with a Bachelor of Arts with Double First Class Honours from the University of Cambridge in 1995 under a Singapore Broadcasting Corporation scholarship. He holds a Master of Arts in Regional Studies from Harvard University, completed in 2005 under a Ministry of Foreign Affairs scholarship, and attended the Advanced Management Programme at INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France, in 2025.

His awards include the Public Administration Medal (Bronze) in 2008, the Long Service Medal in 2019, and both the COVID-19 Resilience Medal and the Public Administration Medal (Gold) (COVID-19) in 2022, the highest honour awarded to a Singapore Foreign Service Officer during Singapore’s COVID-19 response. In 2016, he was conferred the Order of Independence (First Class) by the President of the United Arab Emirates.

Mr Bhatia is also a published historian, writing on early twentieth-century Singapore and Middle East history. He is married to Madam Shireen Khushi, and they have a daughter and a son.