Pankaj Saran made deputy national security adviser
NEWDELHI: Indian ambassador to Russia, Pankaj Saran, has been appointed deputy national security adviser, a government order said on Tuesday, setting in motion the beginning of many high-profile ambassadorial movements over the coming months.
“The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) has approved the appointment of Pankaj Saran (Indian Foreign Service, 1982 batch) as deputy NSA for a period of two years”, said the release.
The appointment is on a deputation basis till he retires in November and on a re-employment on contract for the remainder of the two- year period or until further orders, whichever is earlier, said the release.
A series of new ambassadorial postings are due. In the coming months, Indian ambassadors to the UK (Y K Sinha), Japan (Sujan Chenoy), and China (Gautam Bambawale) are set to retire. The one-year extension given to Indian ambassador in Washington Navtej Sarna will end in December. Secretary (East) in the external affairs ministry Preeti Saran is also set to retire this year.
Saran is a former Indian high commissioner to Bangladesh and served as joint secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office of Manmohan Singh. He also headed the territorial division in the external affairs ministry that deals with Nepal and Bhutan. Saran played an important part in the recent informal summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Vladimir Putin that both sides hailed as a success. With Saran’s appointment, there will be two deputy NSAs to aid national security adviser Ajit Doval.
Rajinder Khanna, former chief of the country’s external intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), was appointed as deputy national security adviser in January this year. The post was lying vacant after Arvind Gupta, a former Indian Foreign Service officer, completed his tenure in August 2017.