President Joe Biden appointed two Indian Americans, Sohini Chatterjee and Aditi Gorur, to the leadership team of the US mission to the UN in January. The mission said that the appointments “reflect President Biden and Vice President (Kamala) Harris’s commitment to building a talented, experienced, and diverse administration that looks like America”. Chatterjee, who had served in former President Barack Obama’s administration focusing on global development issues, will be a senior policy adviser. Gorur, an expert on UN peacekeeping, will be a policy adviser. Biden, who has announced a return to greater involvement with international organisations, appointed career diplomat, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, as the Permanent Representative to the UN and she is awaiting confirmation by the Senate in that role.

She will succeed Kelly Craft, a political appointee of former President Donald Trump, who scaled back international engagement. Chatterjee, who is a lawyer, was recently on the faculty at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and has been a senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.