NEW YORK: Major General Per Lodin, who has been appointed chief military observer and head of Mission for the United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP), which monitors the ceasefire in disputed Jammu Kashmir state, called on Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday.
“This was the first meeting of the new head of the UNMOGIP,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told the regular noon briefing at the UN Headquarters here. “The secretary-general wishes him (Gen Lodin) very well on his important and new assignment,” he said, without elaborating.
“There is no readout on the meeting,” he added His predecessor, Major General Delali Johnson Sakyi of Ghana, who was with Gen Lodin, paid his farewell call on the UN chief. Gen Sakyi completes his two-year assignment on July 2. The secretary-general appreciated his contribution to the UN peacekeeping.
With a military career in the Swedish Army beginning in 1978, Major General Lodin, a logistic expert, most recently held the position of director of the Procurement and Logistics for the Swedish armed forces. Previous to this, he was the deputy director of the National Armaments for Sweden (2012-2014).
General Lodin also served as director of the Strategic Planning and Development (2008), head of Strategies, Research and Development and Business Development (2007) and the deputy chief of staff at the Swedish armed forces (2005-2006). General Lodin is a member of the Swedish Academy of Military Science.
He holds a diploma from the Graduate Institute of International Studies based in Geneva and attended the UN Senior Mission Leaders course in 2015. UNMOGIP was deployed in January 1949 to supervise the ceasefire between Pakistan and India in the State of Jammu Kashmir.
Based in Rawalpindi, the group is composed of 44 military observers, supported by 25 international civilian personnel and 47 local civilian staff.
