A day after US President Barack Obama left town, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government removed the foreign ministry’s top bureaucrat and replaced her with the nation’s ambassador to the US.
Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, who also served as India’s envoy to China from 2009 to 2013, was appointed as foreign secretary, according to a government statement on Wednesday. He succeeds Sujatha Singh, who becomes the first person in the post to be removed before her term expired since 1987.
Jaishankar, 60, who was due to retire by the end of this month, played a key role during both Modi’s visit to the US in September and Obama’s recent three-day tour. He is to have a tenure of two years, the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet said in the statement.
“It’s a very Modi-like decision and characteristic of the prime minister,” said C. Uday Bhaskar, director of the Society for Policy Studies in New Delhi. “It sends a message down to the bureaucracy. The message is that performers will be rewarded.”
Obama’s visit highlighted warming ties between the US and India, which are both wary of China’s geostrategic aims and looking to boost economic growth. They reached a breakthrough on civilian nuclear cooperation and signed deals to strengthen defense ties, including the possibility of sharing technology for aircraft carriers.
Along with his experience representing India in the world’s two biggest economies, Jaishankar helped negotiate the groundbreaking US-India civil nuclear agreement in 2005.
“A big plus point for Jaishankar is he has elaborate experience with the US,” former Indian foreign secretary Salman Haidar said. “This is an extremely important relationship for India and the prime minister.”
Indian Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj plans to visit China on Feb. 1 to participate in trilateral talks that also include Russia. During Obama’s trip, the US and India highlighted the need to safeguard maritime security in the South China Sea, prompting China to urge non-claimants to butt out.
Singh, the ousted bureaucrat, spoke at a press conference during Obama’s visit and was due to retire later this year.
The last foreign secretary to leave office unceremoniously was A.P. Venkateswaran, who was kicked out by former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in part over his criticism of India’s troop presence in Sri Lanka as part of peacekeeping operations.
“This time the circumstances are unusual,” former Indian foreign secretary and former ambassador to the US Lalit Mansingh said, referring to Singh’s removal. “Ultimately the prime minister wants a foreign secretary who has his confidence, and it’s well within his right to appoint Jaishankar.”
Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party rejected criticism over the timing of Singh’s removal and said it was not political, according to spokesman Nalin Satyakam Kohli.
“The government is within its right to appoint any one for any responsibility,” he said by phone. “Jaishankar is an outstanding officer and he enjoys a stunning reputation.”
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
JOINT EFFORTS: The three countries have been strengthening an alliance and pressing efforts to bolster deterrence against Beijing’s assertiveness in the South China Sea The US, Japan and the Philippines on Friday staged joint naval drills to boost crisis readiness off a disputed South China Sea shoal as a Chinese military ship kept watch from a distance. The Chinese frigate attempted to get closer to the waters, where the warships and aircraft from the three allied countries were undertaking maneuvers off the Scarborough Shoal — also known as Huangyan Island (黃岩島) and claimed by Taiwan and China — in an unsettling moment but it was warned by a Philippine frigate by radio and kept away. “There was a time when they attempted to maneuver
RSS