Navtej Sarna has been tapped to serve as India's new U.S. ambassador.
Navtej Sarna has been tapped to serve as India’s new U.S. ambassador.
SAN FRANCISCO (Diya TV) — Navtej Sarna, India’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, was last week appointed as ambassador to the U.S., a high-profile posting where he will face the task of engaging with a new administration in Washington following November’s general election.
Sarna, an Indian Foreign Service officer, was serving as secretaryin the ministry of external affairs before he was posted in London in January. He succeeds Arun Singh, who is due for retirement. The 59-year-old diplomat was among the longest-serving spokespersons of the MEA. He had held the post between 2002 and 2008.
“He is expected to take up the assignment shortly,” the external affairs ministry said.
In Washington, Sarna’s main task will be to ensure continuity in India-US relations.
In his personal time, Sarna has authored a multitude of fiction and non-fiction novels, with the most recent being ‘Second Thoughts: On Books, Authors and the Writerly Life’ released last year. He was also India’s ambassador to Israel from 2008 to 2012. For two years from August 2012, Sarna had served as additional secretary in charge of international organizations in the MEA.
Sarna has previously served at various Indian missions including in Moscow, Warsaw, Tehran, Geneva, Thimphu and Washington.
Yash Sinha, tapped to be Indian High Commissioner to the UK, is a seasoned diplomat and, in his career spanning 35 years, he has handled several important assignments at the MEA and in Indian diplomatic missions in South Asia, the Middle East, Europe and South America.
