Kamlesh Sharma, high commissioner of India to Britain and India's representative on the Board of Governors of the Commonwealth since 2004, has been elected Secretary General of the Commonwealth. Sharma will replace Don McKinnon, whose eight-year term as Secretary General comes to an end in March. Sharma will become the fifth secretary general since the Commonwealth Secretariat was formed in 1965.

A retired IFS officer, 66-year-old Sharma is the first Indian to hold the top job in the Commonwealth.

Sharma was widely expected to win the elections as he had the backing of more than 30 of 53 Commonwealth member states, given India's growing economic clout in the international arena.

While talking to the press, Sharma assured that the Commonwealth will concentrate on the needs of small member states and give them more help in trade negotiations.

He further said, "I think the Commonwealth must keep on making capacities for small states to negotiate effectively, it must keep concentrating on that".

Image: Kamalesh Sharma, the newly appointed Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, concludes a speech during the Commonwealth Heads of State Meeting's final session in Munyonyo, Uganda on Sunday. 

Photograph: Stephen Morrison /AFP/Getty Images