Amb. Leela K. Ponappa has been a career diplomat and served in the Indian Foreign Service for 36 years, in India and abroad, since 1970. Her work has focused on all aspects of relations with neighbouring countries including economic and security matters. She has been the Desk Officer for Pakistan, Joint Secretary for SAARC and Additional Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs, handling relations with Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and the Maldives. She has served as Ambassador of India to Thailand and to the Netherlands and Permanent Representative of India to UN-ESCAP and to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. She has also served as Deputy National Security Adviser and Secretary, National Security Council Secretariat (2007- 2009). She is currently engaged with Track II as Chairperson of CSCAP India (the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific's India committee), and was the non-ASEAN Co-Chair of CSCAP from 2012-14.