India’s Foreign Secretary Ms Nirupama Rao will succeed Meera Shankar as the next Indian ambassador in the US. She will shortly take over her new assignment.
A spokesman of the External Affairs Ministry announced this in New Delhi this afternoon.
The 61-year old IFS officer who belonged to the 1973 batch previously worked as Indian ambassador in several countries including Sri Lanka and China besides working as a junior diplomat in the US.
Nirupama Rao assumed charge as India’s second woman foreign secretary on August 1, 2009 and to make use of her services, the government fixed a two-year term for the post of Foreign Secretary. Earlier, the post had a fixed term of one year. Chokila Iyer was the first woman foreign secretary.