India’s Ambassador to the United Nations TS Tirumurti on Friday announced that the country will chair three important committees – the Taliban Sanctions Committee, Counter-Terrorism Committee and Libya Sanctions Committee – during its eighth tenure as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council.

The envoy, without mentioning Pakistan, said that chairing the Taliban sanctions committee will help India focus on “terrorists and their sponsors” threatening peace in Afghanistan. “It has been our view that peace process and violence cannot go hand in hand,” Tirumurti said in a video message on Twitter. He affirmed India’s commitment to the development of Afghanistan.

A Taliban delegation led by Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar had made a visit to Pakistan in December, the Hindustan Times reported. After that, videos had emerged of Taliban leaders visiting terror training camps in the country.

Tirumurti, then, spoke about how India had been affected by cross-border terrorism. “India will also chair the Counter-Terrorism Committee in 2022, which coincides with the 75th anniversary of India’s independence,” he said. “The chairing of this committee has a special resonance for India, which has not only been in the forefront of fighting terrorism, especially cross-border terrorism, but has also been one of its biggest victims.”

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The UN envoy added that the committee had been formed after the the 9/11 terror attacks in New York. “India had chaired this committee when we were last in the Security Council in 2011-’12,” Tirumurti said.

The envoy referred to the Libya Sanctions Committee as a “very important” subsidiary body of the UN Security Council. “It implements the sanctions regime, including a two-way arms embargo on Libya and assets freeze, a travel ban and measures on illicit export of petroleum etc,” Tirumurti said. “We will be assuming the chair of this committee at a critical juncture, when there is international focus on Libya and on the peace process.”

India had on Monday formally begun its latest term at the UN Security Council, promising to speak out against terrorism and offer solutions related to matters like international peace and security.

In June, India had been elected unopposed to the UNSC as a non-permanent member for a two-year term beginning in 2021. India, which was the only candidate aiming for the Asia-Pacific seat in the 15-member UNSC, secured 184 of the 192 votes in the crucial election. Previously, India had been elected as a non-permanent member of the UNSC in 1950, 1967, 1972, 1977, 1984, 1991 and 2011.

The UN Security Council has five permanent members – China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Ten non-permanent members are elected by the General Assembly for a term of two years. There are five seats for African and Asian countries, one for Eastern European countries, two for Latin America and the Caribbean and two for Western Europe and other countries.