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| Shiv Shankar Menon to be new Foreign Secretary | | |
New Delhi, Aug 31 Mr Shiv Shankar Menon, India's High
Commissioner to Pakistan, was today named the new Foreign
Secretary, succeeding Mr Shyam Saran, who has been appointed
Special Envoy for negotiations on the Indo-US Nuclear Deal.
''Mr Shiv Shankar Menon, presently India's High Commissioner to
Pakistan, will be the next Foreign Secretary of India. He will take
charge from October one. 2006. Mr Shyam Saran will be the Special
Envoy for the negotiations relating to the Indo-US Nuclear
Agreement,'' an official statement said.
Mr Menon (53), one of India's most accomplished diplomats, is
expected to take up his assignment on October one after Mr Saran
retires on September 30.
Mr Menon had been the High Commissioner in Islamabad at the most
crucial juncture when Indo-Pak relations were on an upswing
following the initiatives taken by the previous NDA government.
Similarly Mr Saran is credited with cozying up of relations
between India and the US, culminating in the July 18, 2005 Civilian
Nuclear Energy Cooperation Agreement.
His tenure has also seen India's strong bid and subsequent
lobbying for a permanent seat at the UN Security Council and
some hard diplomacy on the G-4 initiative.
Mr Menon played a crucial role in facilitating a meeting between
then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Pakistan President
Pervez Musharraf in January 2004 on the margins of the SAARC Summit
in Islamabad which led to the initiation of the bilateral peace
process between India and Pakistan. |
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