Archival Notice
The Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in Canberra ceased operations on 30 June 2026 at the request of the Australian Government. All diplomatic, consular and other official activities have been suspended. This website remains available solely as a public archive and source of historical information.

Ambassador Wahidullah Waissi
His Excellency Wahidullah Waissi is an Afghan career diplomat who served as Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to the Commonwealth of Australia from March 2017 to June 2026. He was concurrently accredited as Ambassador to New Zealand and Fiji.

Following the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, Ambassador Waissi and the Embassy in Canberra continued to discharge their diplomatic responsibilities under the authority of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and in accordance with the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961. The Embassy remained independent of Taliban control until its operations ceased on 30 June 2026.

Ambassador Waissi began his career in diplomacy and international development in 2005. At Afghanistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he served as Senior Adviser to the Minister for Regional Cooperation and as Director-General for Economic Cooperation. He contributed to major regional initiatives, including the Chabahar transit agreement, the Lapis Lazuli transport corridor, the TAPI gas pipeline and the CASA-1000 electricity project.

He also contributed to the formulation of the Afghanistan National Development Strategy and Afghanistan’s Millennium Development Goals and Sustainable Development Goals frameworks. From 2012 to 2017, he served as Afghanistan’s National Focal Point for the International Contact Group, which brought together special representatives from more than 60 countries and international organisations.

Ambassador Waissi represented Afghanistan at numerous international forums, including five sessions of the United Nations General Assembly, the 2011 Busan High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness and the 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, Rio+20.

He holds a Master of Arts in Development Economics from Williams College in the United States and is a PhD researcher at the Australian National University, focusing on the geopolitics of landlocked Afghanistan. He has also been a visiting scholar with the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute at Johns Hopkins University.

Following the conclusion of his diplomatic tenure, he established The Afghanistan Institute, a Canberra-based institution dedicated to research, public engagement and strengthening informed understanding of Afghanistan in Australia and internationally.