TS Tirumurti, India’s Permanent Representative to UN, assumes chair of UN’s Counter-Terrorism Committee

India’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, TS Tirumurti, was named the new Chair of the Counter-Terrorism Committee of the United Nations on January 4, 2022. Tirumurti, before taking up his current position as the Permanent Representative of India to the UN, had served as the Secretary in the External Affairs Ministry.

India will chair the Counter-Terrorism Committee of the Un Security Council in January 2022. In 2021, the country was asked to chair three important Committees of the United Nations Security Council. It includes the Counterterrorism Committee, Taliban Sanctions Committee, and the Libyan Sanctions Committee.

The new Chair of the Counter-Terrorism Committee for 2022 is H.E. Mr. T. S. Tirumurti @ambtstirumurti, Permanent Representative and Ambassador @IndiaUNNewYork 🇮🇳. https://t.co/6pM6rjo0u6 pic.twitter.com/ib6zKs9JzC

— United Nations CTED (@UN_CTED) January 4, 2022

TS Tirumurti: List of positions served by India’s Permanent Representative to UN

1. Tirumurti has previously served at the Embassy of India to Egypt, in Cairo

2. The Permanent Mission of India to the UN in Geneva

3. First Representative of India to the Palestinian Authority in Gaza

4. As the Counsellor in the Embassy of India to the United States, in Washington

5. As a Deputy Chief of Mission in the Embassy of India to Indonesia in Jakarta

6. As the High Commissioner of India to Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur

7. Tirumurti served as the Under Secretary (Bhutan)

8. Director (Office of the Foreign Secretary)

9. Joint Secretary (Bangladesh, Myanmar, Maldives and Sri Lanka)

10. Joint Secretary (UN Economic and Social Council) during his service in the External Affairs Ministry.

UN Counter-Terrorism Committee

The United Nations Security Council Counter-terrorism committee was formed in September 2001 soon after the attack of 9/11 in New York. India had chaired the committee in the UN Security Council in 2011-2012.

Objective of UN Counterterrorism committee

UNSC, in the wake of the 9/11 attack, unanimously adopted resolution 1373. The counter-terrorism committee of the UN monitors the implementation of the same resolution which among its provisions also obliges all the countries to deny financial support to terrorist activities, criminalize assistance for terrorism, deny safe haven to terrorists, among others.

While the purpose of the UN counterterrorism committee is to increase the ability of states to fight terrorism, the committee is not a sanctions body and does not maintain a list of terrorist individuals or groups.