By IANS
Kampala : India said Friday that it was “cautiously optimistic” that its candidate Kamlesh Sharma will be elected the new secretary general of the Commonwealth.
“We are talking to all our friends. We are telling them why this is a good candidacy. We are in that process,” Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon said on the opening day of the Commonwealth summit, referring to India’s high commissioner to Britain.
“We certainly think he is the best candidate,” he told Indian journalists here. “We are cautiously optimistic (about his victory).”
Sharma’s main opponent is Malta’s Foreign Minister Michael Frendo. But also in the fray is Srinagar-born British national Mohan Kaul, who claims the support of several countries including Pakistan.
Asked to comment about Kaul, Menon said an individual announcing his own candidature without the backing of any country was “unusual”.
“It has never happened before,” he said.
The last time India put up a candidate for the secretary general’s post was in the 1980s when veteran diplomat Jagat Mehta lost to Shridath Ramphal of Guyana who held that position from 1975 to 1990.
The election to the post will take place Saturday, and the winner will succeed Don McKinnon, a former foreign minister of New Zealand who has presided over the Commonwealth secretariat for eight years.