Shiv Shankar Menon is India’s new foreign secretary

NEW DELHI: The Indian government Thursday named Shiv Shankar Menon, the country’s present envoy to Islamabad, as its new foreign secretary, ending weeks of speculation over who would get the top bureaucratic job in the foreign office.
Menon will succeed Shyam Saran, who will become the prime minister’s special envoy for dealing with the United States on the intensely negotiated and discussed civilian nuclear deal that awaits legislative endorsement by US Congress.
Menon will take charge of his new office on Oct 1 this year. He is the third Indian high commissioner (ambassador) to Pakistan to become foreign secretary, the previous two being S.K. Singh and J.N. Dixit, IANS reported.
Menon has served as envoy to important countries like China, Japan, Sri Lanka, Israel and Austria.
An Indian Foreign Service officer of the 1972 batch, Menon’s impressive diplomatic career also includes a stint as an advisor to the Atomic Energy Commission.
A student of history - he did his masters in history from Delhi University - Menon speaks several foreign languages, including Chinese and German, and is known for his love of classical music and mountaineering.
Menon’s three-year tenure as high commissioner to Pakistan saw a dramatic turnaround in India-Pakistan relations, starting from the resumption of the stalled peace process Jan 6, 2004 to a straining of bilateral ties on the issue of Pakistan’s continuing patronage of cross-border terrorism.
He took over as New Delhi’s envoy in Islamabad in July 2003 at a time when bilateral relations were at a low with air and rail links suspended between the two countries following the Dec 13, 2001 attack on the Indian parliament.
For the next two years, the Indian high commission in Islamabad issued a record number of visas leading to an unprecedented surge in people-to-people contacts between the subcontinental neighbours.
As India’s ambassador to China, Menon’s tenure saw the first serious effort made for the resolution of the decades-old border dispute between India and China during then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s visit in 2003.
Menon’s appointment is likely to be followed by the appointment of a full-fledged foreign minister by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. India has had no foreign minister since Natwar Singh was made to resign last December following his naming in the UN Volcker report regarding corruption in Iraq’s oil-for-food programme.
The external affairs ministry is currently headed by two junior ministers, or ministers of state - Anand Sharma and E. Ahamed.