Senior IFS officer Pradeep Kumar Rawat takes charge as India's new envoy to China

Senior Indian diplomat Pradeep Kumar Rawat took charge as the new Ambassador of India to the People's Republic of China on Monday, March 14. The 1990-batch IFS officer, Rawat succeeds Vikram Misri, who following a three years term was appointed as Deputy National Security Advisor.

The appointment of ambassador Rawat attains significance as he will be heading the foreign office in Beijing at a time when the border situation between the two countries remains grim. Prior to this, he served as India's envoy to the Netherlands.

According to the foreign ministry, ambassador Rawat speaks fluent Mandarin and has served in Hong Kong and China between 1992 and 1997. He returned to Delhi in 1997 and served in East Asia Division for over 3 years and went on to serve as First Secretary in Indian Mission in Mauritius.

Notably, Ambassador Rawat was joint secretary (East Asia) in the MEA when the Doklam border stand-off took place in 2017. He was involved in the negotiations during the early days before moving to Indonesia as an ambassador.

Rawat served as India’s envoy to Indonesia and Timor-Leste from September 2017 to December 2020. In 2021, he was appointed as India's Ambassador to the Netherlands and was the Permanent Representative of India to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons from January 2021-February 2022.