New Indian envoy to China arrives in Beijing

India’s Ambassador-designate to China Vikram Doraiswami on Sunday arrived in Beijing to take up his new assignment and was accorded a warm welcome by senior Chinese and Indian officials.

Deputy Director, Asia Department of the Chinese Foreign Ministry Li Jianbo and Charge d’Affairs of the Indian Embassy Angeline Premalatha, along with senior officials of the Indian mission, received Doraiswami when he arrived from Shanghai, officials said.

Doraiswami reached Shanghai on Saturday to take up his posting amid expectations that his appointment will add momentum to the current normalisation process of Sino-India relations. Doraiswami, a 1992-batch Indian Foreign Service officer, succeeds Pradeep Kumar Rawat. Before his posting to Beijing, Doraiswami served as India’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom.

The 56-year-old diplomat’s appointment in March this year evoked considerable interest in the Chinese official media and the Chinese strategic community.

Doraiswami’s Chinese name, “Wei Jiameng”, which means “one who forms an excellent alliance”, carries diplomatic significance in the present context of India-China relations, according to Chinese scholars. Doraiswami, a Mandarin speaker, had served at both the Hong Kong and Beijing diplomatic missions early in his career.

He was posted as Third Secretary in Hong Kong, where he earned an elective diploma in Chinese from the New Asia Yale-in-Asia Language School before moving to Beijing in September 1996 for a four-year tenure.

Doraiswami’s appointment comes amid efforts by India and China to rebuild relations that came under severe strain following the military standoff in eastern Ladakh in April 2020, which stretched on for four years.

The two countries are currently in the process of normalising relations on all fronts, including the resumption of visas and direct flight services.