Sanjeev Kumar Singla, the current Ambassador of India to Israel, has been appointed as the envoy to France. He is expected to take up the assignment soon.
Singla is an Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer of the 1997 batch.
"Sanjeev Kumar Singla (IFS:1997), presently Ambassador of India to Israel, has been appointed as the next Ambassador of India to France," the MEA said in an official release.
Singla was appointed as India's Ambassador to Israel on July 19, 2019. He will be succeeded by Pavan Kapoor, a 1990-batch IFS officer, according to the Ministry of External Affairs.
In 2014, when Narendra Modi first became Prime Minister, Singla served as his Private Secretary (PS). Before that, he was posted at the Indian Embassy in Tel Aviv.
According to News18, his peers say Singla has made a major contribution in shaping India’s diplomatic policies towards Israel, and maintained a careful and sensitive approach to the Israel-Palestine crisis. As the ambassador in Israel, he was responsible for 18,000 Indian professionals, students and about 85,000 Jews of Indian origin.
Singla is known as an “expert on Israel” and other West Asian countries, reported News18.
Aside from Israel, Singla has served in several capacities at the Indian missions in Paris (France), Dhaka (Bangladesh) and Geneva (Switzerland). He has also served in crucial positions at the US desk in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), and as the director at the foreign secretary’s office.
Meanwhile, Ajit Vinayak Gupte has been appointed as the next Ambassador of India to Germany, a statement by the Ministry of External Affairs said on Monday. The 1991-batch IFS officer is currently the Ambassador of India to Egypt, the statement said.
Gupte was the former Ambassador of India to the Kingdom of Denmark, where he served from November 2017 to March 2021.