In 1981, she began her political career as the Communist Party's second secretary of the Lenin Raion council (raikom) of Frunze, the current Bishkek. In late 1980s, she served as head of the USS delegation to UNESCO in Paris, and later as the Soviet ambassador to Malaysia. In 1998-2001, she served as the first Kyrgyz ambassador to the United Kingdom.In 2002-2004, she was the deputy head of the United Nations special mission to Georgia. In 1992 she became Kyrgyzstan's first ambassador to the United States and two years later she was named foreign minister by then President Askar Akayev.
__