Edwin Samuel

Biography

Edwin Samuel was appointed His Majesty’s Ambassador to Mongolia in May 2026 and will start the role in July 2026.

Prior to this appointment, Edwin was Senior Adviser for the Gulf from September 2022 to 2026. Before September 2022, he performed a number of roles in London, with a focus on Indo-Pacific security policy and counter terrorism.

Having come from a security-policy background, Edwin has developed thinking and training on “soft-smart-power diplomacy”. He graduated from the UK Defence Academy’s Higher Command and Staff Course in 2020 and served as policy adviser to the Royal Navy on deployment in the East Mediterranean and Black Sea.

Edwin has made the Middle East and North Africa a focus of his career. From 2013 to 2019, Edwin was the UK government’s Arabic spokesperson. He represented the UK in Arabic media and worked with allies co-ordinating messaging around the UK’s counter-Da’esh campaign. In this role, he travelled in MENA widely.

Edwin specialises in mediation/track two diplomacy. In 2018, Edwin qualified as an accredited mediator with the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution, specialising in community mediation and special needs/disability related disputes. He became a visiting academic at St Antony’s College, Oxford, researching and writing about mediation attempts in the Middle East and North Africa.

Edwin started his career with the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (which became FCDO) in 2021, having worked in Europe and briefly for HSBC after being called to the Bar as a barrister in England and Wales. Edwin also served in Brazil and Germany as an exchange diplomat and speaks a number of languages.