“To Girls Out There…”: India’s First Woman UN Envoy On Taking Charge

Ambassador Ruchira Kamboj presented her credentials to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres here on Tuesday as she took charge as India’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, the country’s first woman envoy at the world body’s headquarters in New York.

Ruchira Kamboj, 58, a 1987 batch Indian Foreign Service officer, was previously Ambassador of India to Bhutan and was in June appointed India’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York, succeeding Ambassador T S Tirumurti.

“Today,have presented my credentials to the Secretary General of the United Nations @antonioguterres as Permanent Representative/Ambassador to the @UN. A privilege to be the first Indian woman to be given the honour to hold this position. To the girls out there,we all can make it!” she tweeted.

India’s tenure at the Council will end in December this year when the country will also preside as President of the powerful UN organ for the month.

Ms Kamboj had also previously served as a Counsellor at India’s Permanent Mission to the UN in New York from 2002-2005.

Ms Kamboj was the all-India women’s topper of the 1987 Civil Services batch and the topper of the foreign service batch of that year. She began her diplomatic journey in Paris, where she was posted as the Third Secretary in the Indian Embassy in France from 1989-1991.

From Paris, she returned to Delhi where she worked as under secretary in the Europe West Division of the Ministry of External Affairs from 1991-96. From 1996-1999, she served in Mauritius as First Secretary (Economic and Commercial) and Head of Chancery at the Indian High Commission in Port Louis.

Ms Kamboj served as the high commissioner of India to South Africa, with concurrent accreditation to the Kingdom of Lesotho from July, 2017 to March, 2019. She assumed charge as Indian envoy to Bhutan on 17 May, 2019.

She joins the group of women Ambassadors at the Council including US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield, UK Permanent Representative (PR) Ambassador Barbara Woodward, Norway’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York Mona Juul, UAE’s Ambassador Lana Zaki Nusseibeh.

Ireland’s PR Ambassador Geraldine Nason is heading to Washington as her country’s envoy.