Vijay Kunhlanandan Nambiar, India's Permanent Representative to the United Nations since April 2002, retired from the Indian Foreign Service last week at the end of a 37-year career during which he took up many challenging assignments, including ones as ambassador to Afghanistan and China and high commissioner to Pakistan.

Nambiar, who joined the IFS in 1967, is one of the external affairs ministry's experts on China, where he was posted thrice during his illustrious career.

He also proved equally adept at multilateral diplomacy, one of the reasons he was appointed Permanent Representative to the UN after then Permanent Representative Kamalesh Sharma retired.

On May 27 diplomats in New York bid Nambiar farewell.

Photograph: Paresh Gandhi. Text: Suman Guha Mozumder

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