Navtej Sarna who has been serving as India’s High Commissioner to UK has been appointed as ambassador to the US. Sarna will face the task of engaging with a new administration in Washington following the November 8 Presidential poll.
The external affairs ministry said that he is expected to take up the assignment shortly. The 59-year-old diplomat is an Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer of the 1980 batch. Sarna was serving as secretary (West) in the ministry of external affairs before he was posted in London as India’s High Commissioner in January.
The diplomat who will now hold the crucial position is among the longest-serving spokespersons of the Ministry of External Affairs. He had held the post between 2002 and 2008.
Sarna has also penned many fiction and non-fiction books, with the most recent being ‘Second Thoughts: On Books, Authors and the Writerly Life’ released last year.
Sarna has a vast experience serving at various Indian missions including in Moscow, Warsaw, Tehran, Geneva, Thimphu and Washington.
The government has also appointed 1988-batch IFS officer Taranjit Singh Sandhu as the next High Commissioner of India to Sri Lanka.
