NEW PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF INDIA PRESENTS CREDENTIALS TO DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF UNOG

Achamkulangare Gopinathan, the new Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations Office at Geneva, today presented his credentials to Sergei Ordzhonikidze, the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva.

Prior to his appointment to Geneva, Mr. Gopinathan had been serving as India’s Ambassador to Egypt since November 2005. From January 2002 to September 2005, he served as Deputy Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations in New York. From August 1997 to December 2001, he was the Joint Secretary responsible for the United Nations and other international organizations at the Ministry of External Affairs of India. In that capacity, he was responsible for human rights and humanitarian issues, the environment, climate change and sustainable development, and other economic and social issues dealt with by various UN bodies and other international organizations, among others.

A career diplomat, Mr. Gopinathan joined the Indian Foreign Service in July 1977. He has held postings in Qatar and Sri Lanka. Others posts include serving as India’s Deputy High Commissioner in Mauritius from 1993 to 1997, and First Secretary in the Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations in New York from February 1987 to September 1990.

Mr. Gopinathan holds a Masters degree in physics. He was born in 1951 and is married.


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