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Tribune News Service
New Delhi, August 14
The Ministry of External Affairs has announced that D. Bala Venkatesh Varma will be the next Indian Ambassador to Russia.
The appointment comes at a crucial time when Delhi-Moscow ties have been strained with the shadow of United States looming on both countries and attempts were made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to re-energise ties during the informal Sochi summit recently with President Valdimir Putin.
A 1988-batch diplomat, Venkatesh Varma is currently India’s ambassador to Spain. He is expected to take up his assignment shortly. His predecessor Ambassador Pankaj Saran has been appointed Deputy National Security Adviser in the Prime Minister’s Office.
Venkatesh Varma studied Russian in the Foreign Service and has served in Moscow earlier as Third Secretary at the Embassy from 1990-1992 and as First Secretary from 2000-2003. In his diplomatic career, he served as Director in PMO as well as Joint Secretary (Disarmament & International Security Affairs) in MEA. Prior to his posting as envoy in Madrid, he was the Ambassador and Permanent Representative of India to the Conference on Disarmament.
Additionally Rahul Chhabra, presently Ambassador of India to Budapest, has been appointed as the next High Commissioner of India to the Republic of Kenya.
A 1990-batch IFS (Indian Foreign Service) officer, Partha Sathpathy, presently Joint Secretary at MEA Headquarters, has been appointed as the next Ambassador of India to Ukraine.
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