India's TS Tirumurti assumes new chair of UN Counter-Terrorism Committee

TS Tirumurti, India's permanent representative to the United Nations was named the new Chair of the UN Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC) on Tuesday (local time).

Prior to taking up his current position as Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations, in May 2020, Tirumurti served as Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs, handling the Economic Relations portfolio (which included, inter alia, the Gulf and the Arab World, Africa, and India's Development Partnership), according to UNSC statement.

Tirumurti previously served at the Embassy of India to Egypt, in Cairo; at the Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations in Geneva; as the first Representative of India to the Palestinian Authority, in Gaza; as Counsellor in the Embassy of India to the United States, in Washington. DC; as Deputy Chief of Mission in the Embassy of India to Indonesia, in Jakarta; and as High Commissioner of India to Malaysia, in Kuala Lumpur, the statement further said.

Tirumurti also served as Under Secretary (Bhutan), Director (Office of the Foreign Secretary), Joint Secretary (Bangladesh, Maldives, Myanmar and Sri Lanka), and Joint Secretary (United Nations Economic and Social Council) during his service in the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, in New Delhi, it added.

India will chair the Counter-Terrorism Committee of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) in January.

This Committee was formed in September 2001 soon after the tragic terrorist attack of 9/11 in New York, while India had chaired this Committee in the Security Council in 2011-12.

In 2021, India has been asked to Chair three important Committees of the Security Council, which include the Taliban Sanctions Committee, Counterterrorism Committee, and the Libyan Sanctions Committee.