Jagdish Koonjul

Jagdish Dharamchand Koonjul, GCSK, GOSK, is the Permanent Representative of Mauritius to the United Nations, and was President of the United Nations Security Council in January 2002.

Career Koonjul was Mauritian chief representative to the United Nations Security Council from 2001 to 2002, and President of the United Nations Security Council in January 2002. He was Permanent Representative of Mauritius to the United Nations from 2001 to 2006.

Koonjul was Mauritian Ambassador to Belgium and Permanent Representative to the European Union from 2011 to 2015.

Since July 2015 Koonjul served as Secretary for Foreign Affairs of Mauritius.

In 2016, Koonjul was awarded Grand Officer of the Order of the Star and Key of the Indian Ocean (G.O.S.K) and later in 2022, the Grand Commander of the Order of the Star and Key of the Indian Ocean (G.C.S.K) for "valuable contribution in the field of diplomacy, particularly, for the effective completion of the decolonisation process of Mauritius."

2022 Mauritian expedition to Chagos Archipelago In February 2022, Koonjul as Permanent Representative of Mauritius to the United Nations led a fifteen day Mauritian expedition to the islands of the Chagos Archipelago, which recent decisions by the International Court of Justice, United Nations General Assembly and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea had supported Mauritius' claim to the islands, rather than the United Kingdom's British Indian Ocean Territory claim. Exiled islanders made their first unsupervised visit to an island in the Chagos Archipelago. Prime Minister of Mauritius, Pravind Jugnauth, said this was not to embarrass the UK, but "merely an exercise of our sovereignty over part of our territory and that is in accordance with international law."

Koonjul raised the Mauritian flag on Peros Banhos. The main purpose of the expedition was to survey the unclaimed Blenheim Reef, to discover if it is exposed at high tide so is claimable.

Awards and decorations

Personal life Koonjul is married and has four children.