With the Indian diplomatic calendar packed with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s foreign tours and incoming visits by dignitaries, the Government has rejigged its diplomatic lineup to appoint over a dozen ambassadors in the last two months, besides making changes at the domestic level. The PM is scheduled to go on a three-nation tour to France, Germany and Canada from April 9-16 while a visit to China is being worked out in May. Besides, the PM also has his annual obligations to United Nations General Assembly, G-20 Summit and East Asia Summit. And if a visit by Japanese Premier Shinzo Abe is on cards, then the heads of 54 African nations will be in India this October.
With the new Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar taking charge in January replacing Sujatha Singh, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has swiftly moved on appointments of envoys too. Among the major diplomatic changes are those of Arun Kumar Singh, the current ambassador in Paris, who will now be the US Ambassador, a seat that fell vacant due to Jaishankar’s appointment as the FS.
Singh’s deputy in Paris Indra Mani Pandey will be the new ambassador of Oman. However, in view of Modi’s upcoming visit to France, the two officers are staying put to make arrangements and will take charge of their new assignments only after the PM’s tour. Similarly, Vishnu Prakash has been positioned in Ottawa as the new ambassador of Canada, where Modi is headed to. He was earlier envoy of South Korea where he has been replaced by Vikram Kumar Doraiswamy, who moved from Uzbekistan to Seoul.
Navtej Suri, whose tenure in Egypt ended recently, has been moved to Australia. India’s envoy in Atlanta Ajit Kumar has gone to ambassador to United Nations office in Geneva while former Iraq ambassador Suresh Reddy is the Indian ambassador in the ASEAN secretariat in Jakarta.
Besides, two joint secretaries from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) — Alok Kumar Sinha and Riva Ganguly Das — are new ambassadors of Bahrain and Romania, respectively. Sinha was in the Development Partnership Administration of MEA looking after lines of Credit, grant projects etc, while Das was JS latin Americas and Carribeans. Some shuffling has also taken place in embassies of smaller countries like Peru (Sandeep Chakravatry), Guinea Bissau (Partha Sathpathy), Republic of Kiribati and Nauru (Anumula Gitesh Sarma) and Madasgascar (CB Thapliyal).
In Delhi, the prominent change has been in the XP Division with the appointment of new spokesperson Vikas Swarup replacing Syed Akbaruddin, and the setting up of a secretariat for hosting the Indo-African Forum Summit in October. Syed Akbaruddin will now be the chief coordinator for Afro-Indian summit under Secretary (West) Navtej Singh Sarna.
On Saturday, Modi — who will leave later this evening to Singapore to attend the funeral of its former PM lee Kuan Yew — tweeted saying his three-nation tour in April was aimed at boosting India’s economy and creating jobs. “Will discuss strengthening India-France economic cooperation & visit some high-tech industrial units outside Paris,” Modi said in a tweet. About Germany, Modi said: “Chancellor (Angela) Merkel & I will jointly inaugurate @Hannover_Messe (festival) where India is a partner country.”
Modi’s Canada tour will be the first ever bilateral visit by an Indian PM in 40 years. “looking forward to enhancing ties with Canada & interacting with leaders, captains of industry & diaspora in Canada,” PM said. He also re-tweeted a message of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper which said: “Happy to announce Prime Minister of India, @NarendraModi will be visiting Canada this spring.” Thanking Harper for this, Modi wrote, “...Will be wonderful to meet you in Canada.”