Seetharam new Indian ambassador to UAE

The Government of India has appointed T.P. Seetharam, the current Indian High Commissioner to Mauritius, as the Indian Ambassador to the UAE; while Anurag Bhushan, who is currently the Regional Passport Officer in New Delhi, has been appointed the Consul- General of India in Dubai.

The present Indian Ambassador to the UAE, M.K. Lokesh has been posted as the Indian Ambassador to Switzerland, with additional charges of Vatican City and the Principality of Liechtenstein, which lies between Switzerland and Austria. Lokesh, who has been serving the Indian Embassy in Abu Dhabi since April 2010, will be leaving next month.

Speaking to Khaleej Times from Mauritius, Seetharam said he would join the embassy by the end of December. “I am looking forward to taking up this fascinating diplomatic assignment in the UAE. There have been eminent Indian ambassadors there (in the UAE). I hope to continue their tradition and try to improve our services for the Indian citizens and build up on the excellent relations that we have with the UAE.”

Seetharam has handled India’s bilateral relations with countries in Europe as Additional Secretary, West Europe and as Joint Secretary Central, Europe in New Delhi. A Mandarin-speaking officer of the 1980 batch, he was the Director General of the India-Taipei Association and has also worked in the Indian Embassy in Beijing and the Indian Commission in Hong Kong. He has considerable experience in Southern Africa and has also worked as the Minister dealing with Conference on Disarmament in the Permanent Mission of India in Geneva.

He has worked as Deputy Chief of Mission in Bangkok (Thailand) and dealt with the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP). He also served the Indian Embassy in Phnom Penh (Cambodia).

The younger brother of veteran Indian diplomat T.P. Sreenivasan, Seetharam has also worked as Press Secretary to the former Indian president K.R. Narayanan. Born in Kerala in 1956, Seetharam is married to Deepa Elenkath and has a son and a daughter.

According to the Indian Consulate in Dubai, the new Indian Consul General Anurag Bhushan is expected to join the mission this month. A 1995 batch officer of the Indian Foreign Service, Bhushan worked in the Consular, Passport and Visa (CPV) division of the Ministry of External Affairs prior to his current job. He will succeed Sanjay Verma, who has left Dubai after a three and a half year term to take up his new role as the Indian Ambassador to Ethiopia.— sajila@khaleejtimes.com