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New Delhi
Former Indian Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra has been nominated as the next Indian Ambassador to the US. India has officially communicated this nomination to the US. Kwatra, a career diplomat, previously served in China, the US, in Modi’s office, and as India’s envoy to France before his tenure as the top bureaucrat in the foreign ministry.
His immediate priority will be to engage with officials who could play a crucial role in India-related policy during the next US administration. India-US ties have strengthened over the past two decades, and Kwatra’s appointment aims to bring certainty to this important relationship as countries prepare for a potential change in administration after the upcoming US elections.
India’s Ministry of External Affairs has not yet commented on the matter of his appointment.
The timing of the new US Ambassador’s appointment by India is critical as for some time now India-US relations have been going through a churn as the US has expressed its displeasure over India’s ties with Russia. Moreover, the US is pressing India to act against those who tried to allegedly kill Sikh separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun. An Indian Origin man, Nikhil Gupta, was arrested in the Czech Republic and was deported to the US at the behest of US authorities.
The nomination will be followed by procedural formalities in the US following which Kwatra will be taking over in Washington DC. Since January this year, The post of India’s Ambassador to the US had been lying vacant when Taranjit Singh Sandhu retired.
