Paul Myler is Australia’s Ambassador to the Russian Federation, and concurrently to Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Armenia, Moldova and Belarus. He takes up this posting at a time of heightened engagement between Russia and Australia with Russia having hosted APEC in 2012; Russia and Australia hosting the G20 successively in 2013-2014; Australia joining Russia on the United Nations Security Council for 2013-14 and Russia entering the World Trade Organisation. The countries of Central Asia will also have a major role to play in the future of Afghanistan as Australia and its international partners draw down in 2014.
Mr Myler has 18 years experience with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and also served as Chief of Staff to the Hon. Martin Ferguson AM MP, Minister for Resources and Energy and Minister for Tourism during the tumultuous finalisation of Australia’s carbon pricing scheme and minerals resource rent tax.
Mr Myler was most recently Assistant Secretary, Northern, Southern and Eastern Europe Branch, where he managed bilateral relations with 38 European countries, guiding 15 Australian Embassies with around 300 staff.
His previous appointments include leading Australia’s negotiations on services and investment at the World Trade Organisation in Geneva and Senior Legal Counsel on the Australia-US Free Trade Agreement negotiation. From 2008-2010 he led the Australian diplomatic response to the Global Financial Crisis and emergence of the G20 as head of the International Financial Crisis Task Force within Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and a member of the Australian Government’s International Economic Policy Group. He was posted to the Australian Embassy in Moscow in the late 1990s.
Mr Myler holds a Master of Arts from Monash University, and a Bachelor of Laws (Hons) and Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Western Australia. He will be accompanied in Moscow by his wife Angela and three children.