Vijay Nambiar appointed Special Adviser to Kofi Annan

Washington, Mar 4: United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has announced the appointment of Mr Vijay Nambiar of India as his Special Adviser in the rank of Under-Secretary-General.

Mr Nambiar will take charge from April1, 2006.

He will advise the Secretary-General on a wide range of issues.

He will follow important issues for the Secretary-General and also represent him in New York and elsewhere at a high level. In New York, he will help in liaising with Permanent Representatives. He will be a member of the Policy Committee, according to a UN press release yesterday.

A career diplomat, Mr Nambiar currently serves as Deputy National Security Advisor to the Government of India and Head of the National Security Council Secretariat. He previously served as India's Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York during May 2002-June 2004.

Earlier as Ambassador of India, he served successively in Pakistan (2000-2001), China (1996-2000), Malaysia (1993-1996), and Afghanistan (1990-1992). He was also Ambassador of India in Algeria (1985-1988).

During the course of his professional career in the Indian Foreign Service, he had served in numerous bilateral and multilateral appointments in Beijing, Belgrade and New York during the 1970s and 1980s. He was Joint Secretary (Director General) handling East Asia in 1988 during the period of the historic visit of Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi to China. He also dealt with multilateral affairs at the headquarters in New Delhi during the early 1980s. He was involved at the delegation level in numerous UN and non-aligned summit and ministerial conferences since 1979.

Mr Nambiar joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1967 and spent his early years in the diplomatic service specializing in the Chinese language serving in Hong Kong and Beijing. He also served during the mid-1970s in Belgrade, Yugoslavia.

Mr Nambiar was born in Poona, now Pune, in August 1943. He holds a post-graduate degree in political science from Bombay University and was awarded the Chancellor's Gold Medal of the University in 1965.

He is married and has two daughters.

UNI