After nearly seven months of wait, both Russia and United States of America have lifted suspense over the names of their Ambassadors to India, whose posts have been lying vacant since January. Career diplomat Nikolai Kudashev will be the new Russian envoy to India while US President Donald Trump has nominated economist and an old India hand Kenneth Juster as the new Ambassador to India.
India is a strategic partner of both Russia and theUS, and yet it took the two Governments such long time to fill the posts. In between Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made a trip to both Russia and the US and a lot of diplomatic work has been lined up to be followed up. Sources in both embassies said that since India is a strong ally and a strategic partner, the delay only meant that the leaders are carefully considering those names for the post who can take forward the relationship to a new height.
“US President Donald Trump will nominate Kenneth Juster to be ambassador to India,” the White House said on Friday. Juster was a deputy assistant to Trump for international economic affairs and the Deputy Director of the National Economic Council until June. From 2001 to 2005 he was Under Secretary of Commerce under former President George Bush. He has also been the chair of the US-India High Technology Cooperation Group. Juster will replace Richard Verma who quit as the US Ambassador to India after the Trump regime took over.
White House's announcement comes shortly after Democratic representative Frank Pallone Jr. wrote a letter to Trump last week urging him to appoint an Ambassador in India while stressing India is an important country for the US. “India is also our strongest ally in South Asia, which you referenced in your address to the nation. It is in our immediate National interest to send an accomplished American to serve as our country's senior diplomat in India,” Pallone said. The US is represented by Chargé d'Affaires by MaryKay loss Carlson for the last six months. Juster's appointment is expected to give a fresh impetus to the trade and defense relationship between India and the US apart from coordinating India's larger role in Afghanistan, as mentioned by Trump when he announced his Government Afghanistan policy.
Meanwhile, Indian ambassador to Moscow Pankaj Saran last week met Ambassador-designate Kudashev to get acquainted and discussed bilateral relations. Kudashev will soon be in India to present his credential to the President and take things further in the India-Russia relationship from where former envoy Alexander Kadakin had left. Kadakin, Russia's longest serving envoy to India, died this January following illness. During the last six months, Russia was represented in New Delhi by Charge d'Affairs Anatoly Kargapolov.
Kudashev, a career diplomat, was the Deputy Director of the General Secretariat of the Russian Foreign Ministry and is considered a specialist in Southeast Asia. He was also ambassador to Micronesia and the Marshall Islands in 2014-2015. “President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin by the executive order appointed Nikolay Kudashev as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to the Republic of India,” the Russian embassy said in a statement.
In another important appointment, Pakistan has nominated Sohail Mahmood has its new High Commissioner to India. Mahmood is yet to present credentials to the President.