Commonwealth leaders chose a new secretary-general for their organisation yesterday and continued informal talks on climate change, democracy and trade.

Leaders from Britain and her former colonies named Kamalesh Sharma, currently India’s ambassador to Britain, as the new Commonwealth secretary-general, said Don McKinnon, the outgoing secretary-general.

The leaders unanimously chose Sharma over the other main contender for the job, Malta’s Foreign Minister Michael Frendo, McKinnon told journalists.

Sharma will replace McKinnon, a New Zealander, as the day-to-day leader of the 53-nation group of Britain and its former colonies on 1 April. Queen Elizabeth II is the Commonwealth’s symbolic head.