Perth: Seasoned Indian diplomat Kamalesh Sharma was on Sunday reappointed Secretary General of the 54-nation Commonwealth grouping for a four-year term beginning April 2012.
India proposed 70-year-old Sharma`s name for a second term to the coveted post at the concluding session of the 21st Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) here. Pakistan seconded it.
The proposal was accepted unanimously by everybody. Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard congratulated Sharma on his re-appointment at a joint press conference with Sharma on conclusion of the CHOGM. "I am deeply appreciative of the confidence reposed by the leaders of the Commonwealth for giving me a further term in office," Sharma said.
Faced with a poser on his age at a time when the focus of the Commonwealth was on the youth, Sharma had a deft response: "In life it does not matter how old you are, but how young you think." Sharma, a former Indian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, was elected as Commonwealth Secretary General at the 19th CHOGM in Uganda over Michael Frendo, the Foreign Minister of Malta.
Sharma has been associated with the Commonwealth since 2004 when he was a member of the Board of Governors of the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Commonwealth Foundation. PTI