Arrival of new Indian envoy at least a month away

KATHMANDU, May 7: The arrival of Jayanta Prasad in Kathmandu as new Indian envoy to Nepal is likely to be delayed even as the agreemo proposing his name has already been approved last week, diplomatic sources said.



Indian Ambassador to Nepal Rakesh Sood, who is one of the senior-most career diplomats at Indian External Affairs Ministry (EAM), will be staying in Nepal for at least a month as there are no vacant positions suiting his bureaucratic hierarchy at the moment. The three-year diplomatic assignment of envoy Sood expired in April end. [break]



Ambassadorial positions in India´s High Commission in London, Indian embassies in France and the United States of America and the post of Foreign Secretary at the EAM are going to be vacant in July. “It is expected that the movement of senior diplomats who would be assigned in these positions will start only from the first week of June,” said a diplomatic source.



Envoy Sood is considered one of the most seasoned diplomats at the EAM. Besides serving as India´s Ambassador to Afghanistan and Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, Sood has also served as Deputy Chief of Mission in the Embassy of India in Washington DC, First Secretary and Counselor in India´s High Commission in Islamabad and First Secretary in the Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations Offices in Geneva.



Ambassador Sood was joint secretary heading the Disarmament and International Security Affairs at EAM before his diplomatic assignment in Kathmandu three years ago. “Ambassador Sood is likely to be given key position either within the ministry or diplomatic mission in a major country abroad,” the source further said.



As such, former ambassador of India to Nepal Shiva Shanker Mukharjee was deputed to India´s High Commission in London and Shyam Sharan was promoted to the post of foreign secretary after completion of their diplomatic assignment in Kathmandu.



Both Sood and Prasad joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1976. A son of former Indian Ambassador to Nepal, Bimal Prasad during the 1989-1990 political crises, Prasad is currently serving as Additional Secretary at the EAM.



Meanwhile, People´s Republic of China (PRC) is yet to name a new ambassador to Nepal even as its envoy Qiu Guohong left Kathmandu on April 8.



“We have no information about new ambassador yet,” said Chinese Embassy´s spokesperson Peng Wenlin. He said the name of new envoy to Kathmandu is expected to be finalized within a few weeks.

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