Ruchira Kamboj became India’s first female Permanent Representative to the United Nations on August 2, after presenting her credentials to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. “It is my deepest honour to serve my country in this new position,” she said in a tweet.
Kamboj will take her seat at the Security Council, where India is an elected member, at a time when international tensions are high following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the body is hampered by permanent members’ veto powers.
As India’s envoy, she will have to deal with intense pressure from all sides over the country’s independent stance on Ukraine, which neither supports nor condemns Russia, and will have to repeatedly reiterate the position in speeches and votes at the UN.
Preside over Security Council in December
Kamboj is set to preside over the Security Council in December. She has special expertise on Security Council reforms, an important issue for India, having been a member of the G4 team comprised of India, Brazil, Germany, and Japan that works together to expand the Council’s permanent membership.
Kamboj has extensive experience working with multilateral organisations, including stints as a Counsellor at India’s mission in New York, Permanent Representative to UNESCO in Paris, and deputy head of the Commonwealth Secretary-Office General’s in London.
She was an Indian Foreign Service officer from the 1987 batch who served as Ambassador to Bhutan before taking on her new role. Previously, she served as the High Commissioner in South Africa and as the chief of protocol.
First woman appointed as UN’s permanent representative
She takes over for T.S. Tirumurti, who retired from the Foreign Service. She is the first woman to be appointed as the UN’s permanent representative, following 21 Indian representatives at the UN, though Jawaharlal Nehru’s sister Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit was designated as the chief delegate to the General Assembly twice.
