JOIN USIn a major reshuffle in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), Vijay Gokhale will take over as New Delhi’s envoy to Bejing while former MEA spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin will be India’s new Permanent Representative to the United Nations.
Besides them, several other senior Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officers are also being relocated with key assignments.
Gokhale, currently New Delhi’s envoy to Berlin, will succeed Ashok K Kantha, who is set to retire in the next few months.Gokhale, an IFS officer of the 1981 batch, had his previous diplomatic assignments in Hong Kong, Hanoi, Beijing and New York. He also served as Deputy Secretary (Finance), Director (China & East Asia) and Joint Secretary (East Asia) at the MEA headquarters. He was India’s high commissioner to Malaysia between January 2010 and October 2013 before taking over the responsibility in Germany.