Periaswamy Kumaran has been appointed as India’s next High Commissioner to Singapore. He is currently serving as the Indian Ambassador to Qatar.
The appointment comes at a crucial time when the two nations have expanded their ties in recent times and are in the process of negotiating a Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong of Singapore have agreed to work together in dealing with the fallout of COVID-19.
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Many crucial projects such as the Smart City Project and the Skill India initiative are being carried out with the expert guidance provided by Singapore.
The large Indian diaspora bind the two nations. Tamil is one of the national languages of the Republic of Singapore.
Kumaran is an officer of the Indian Foreign Service belonging to the 1992 batch. He is considered to be an expert on West Asia and has extensively served in Cairo, Tripoli, Brussels, Islamabad.
He has also served as the Deputy High Commissioner to Colombo and as the Joint Secretary (Consular, Passport and visa).
Recently, he played a key role in the evacuation of Indian nationals from Qatar as part of the Vande Bharat Mission.
He will take over from Jawed Ashraf, who has been appointed as India’s envoy to France.
Meanwhile, Pratibha Parkar, an officer of the Indian Foreign Service belonging to the 2000 batch has been appointed has the Ambassador to the resource rich African nation of Angola.
In recent times, PM Modi has infused energy into Afro-Indian ties and assistance in the form of IT and other projects is a key component of ties between India and the second largest continent.
Parkar is presently the Consul-General to Frankfurt and has served in Moscow, Jakarta and New York previously.
She is credited with enhancing India’s ties with Germany and establishing key links with one of Europe’s key financial centres.
She holds a Post-Graduate Degree in History from the Mumbai university.