India will increase its diplomatic strength at its Permanent Mission in New York ahead of taking the role as a non-permanent member at United Nations Security Council (UNSC) from January 1, 2021 for a two-year period. The Indian mission will get four more diplomats.
The diplomats being dispatched to serve at the Indian mission to UN in New York are: R Ravindra IFS 1999, Pratik Mathur IFS 2007, Ashish Sharma IFS 2009, Rajesh Parihar IFS 2009.
The mission is led by Ambassador TS Tirumurti who is India’s top diplomat at the Indian mission to UN — India’s Permanent Representative (PR) – and Ambassador Nagaraj Naidu, Deputy Permanent Representative (DPR), both of which are Ambassador level ranks.
R Ravindra, currently Joint Secretary (Central and West Africa), will be the Political Coordinator for UNSC matter and his designation will be Deputy Permanent Representative. All UNSC member countries have political coordinators, which in India’s case will be–R Ravindra.
Pratik Mathur is currently Deputy Secretary PMO, Ashish Sharma is in Protocol division of MEA and Rajesh Parihar is First Secretary (Economic & Commerce) at the Indian mission in Bejing.
The mission will have strong Beijing connection with four diplomats fluent in Mandarin – Deputy envoy Nagaraj Naidu, Madhu Sudan, Pratik Mathur and Siddharth Malik. Madhu Sudan was Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s interpreter at the informal Wuhan summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in April of 2018.
India has 14 diplomats at its mission in the UN and with the addition of four, strength will increase to 18. Other Indian diplomats are Amarnath, Mayank Singh, Vidisha Maitra, Yedla Umashankar, Deepak Misra, Paulomi Tripathi, Mijito Vinito, Gopal K Wadhwa with Col Sandeep Kapoor looking into Peacekeeping and Thirugnana Sambandan into Peacekeeping issues relating to Police.
India got elected to the UNSC in the month of June with the overwhelming support of 184 votes out of 192 countries. It was elected unopposed, as New Delhi was the sole candidate for the Asia-Pacific seat. As the founding member of the world body, India has already served seven times as a non-permanent member of the UNSC.
Source: dnaindia.com