New Delhi, Mar 19 (UNI) India today named senior diplomat Vikram Doraiswami as its next envoy to China, in a strategic move at a time when both nations are keen to advance their bilateral ties, amid the global geopolitical churn.
Currently India’s High Commissioner to the UK, Doraiswami is expected to take up his assignment in Beijing shortly, a statement from the Ministry of External Affairs said.
A 1992 batch Indian Foreign Services officer, Doraiswami has previously served as Indian High Commissioner in Bangladesh, and India’s ambassador to Uzbekistan and South Korea.
Doraiswami, who took charge as Indian High Commissioner in London on September 23, 2022, knows Chinese, and has previously served in the Indian Embassy in Beijing, from September 1996 onwards. He was also posted at Hong Kong in May 1994 as Third Secretary.
It was during his stint in London that pro-Khalistani activists vandalised the Indian High Commission in London in March 2023, with some Khalistanis attempting to scale the balcony and pull down the Indian national flag, and replace it with the Khalistani flag. However, the attempt was firmly foiled by the Indian staff there.
In September 2023, a group of Khalistanis tried to prevent Doraiswami from entering a gurdwara in Glasgow, Scotland, by blocking his car. India had formally protested both the incidents.
India’s ties with the UK had seen a downswing at the time, but have seen a marked improvement under the Labour government of Keir Starmer.
India’s ties with China have seen a marked improvement, with New Delhi and Beijing managing to iron out their differences following the October 2024 meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Kazan, Russia, in their first bilateral meeting in five years, on the sidelines of the 16th BRICS Summit.
The meeting took place after both nations reached a major breakthrough agreement to end their four-year military standoff in eastern Ladakh. Ties between the two neighbours had nosedived following the Galwan clash in 2020.
Following the thaw, trade ties and people-to-people ties have continued to rise. Prime Minister Modi’s visit to Tianjin in China last year, to attend the 25th Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit was a highpoint in their ties. This was PM Modi’s first trip to China in over seven years.
Doraiswami takes over as Ambassador in Beijing from Pradeep Rawat, at a time when the two nations appear determined to steady their bilateral relations, amid the see-saw in the global geopolitical firmament, what with the escalating West Asia crisis and the continuing Russia-Ukraine conflict.
