India's High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Mr. Kamalesh Sharma, has been selected the new Commonwealth Secretary-General slated to take over the reins of office on 1 April 2008. This was announced today by the outgoing Secretary-General Rt. Hon. Don McKinnon in Kampala, Uganda. He said the selection of Mr. Sharma was a unanimous decision by Commonwealth leaders.

"It is an honour and privilege to serve this great institution. I do so with confidence and enthusiasm and would like to express my gratitude to all the leaders for the responsibility and trust they have given me to carry forward the work of the Commonwealth," Mr. Sharma said.

He congratulated Mr. McKinnon for his "outstanding leadership and commitment" to the Commonwealth and added that it was a very chastening moment. Ambassador Kamalesh Sharma has served largely as a member of the Indian Foreign Service, in the course of which he has had wide-ranging diplomatic experience in various parts of the world, culminating as Ambassador in five missions.

Since 2004, as a member of the Board of Governors of the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Commonwealth Foundation, Ambassador Sharma has taken very keen interest in the activities and advocacy of the Commonwealth, significantly enhancing India's active engagement with it. He represented India at the meetings of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group in February and November 2005 and led India's delegation at the pre-Commonwealth Heads of Government (CHOGM) Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Malta 2005. Ambassador Sharma was the first Special Representative of UN Secretary-General to independent Timor Leste (2002-2004) with the rank of Under-Secretary General. The Security Council mandate gave the SRSG responsibility for internal security and for laying the foundation for all areas of public administration, particularly those of justice, financial administration, policing and protection of human rights.

At headquarters in New Delhi, all the three assignments of Ambassador Sharma in the Foreign Office were concerned with the full range of global multilateral issues and engagement within the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and G-77. He was head of division of the Indian programme for technical cooperation, particularly in support of building human resource capacity in fellow developing countries (South-South Cooperation).

As the Indian Permanent Representative to the UN offices in Geneva, he acted as the spokesperson for developing countries in UNCTAD during the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations. He has also served as the Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations in New York. Throughout his career, Ambassador Sharma has shown a strong commitment to all facets of equitable global relationships, enlightened governance, gender equity and engagement with issues of global regimes involving trade, technology and finance.

Ambassador Sharma was educated in Delhi University and King's College, Cambridge. He holds an Hon. Doctor of Laws from De Montfort University, UK and has been a Director of the Peace Academy, New York. He is the recipient of the medal of the Foreign Policy Association of the US and a Fellow of Harvard University.

CHOGM, 24/11/07.