Jitender Pal Singh is India’s new envoy to Israel

Jitender Pal Singh also headed the crucial Pakistan-Afghanistan-Iran division in the external affairs ministry since 2020

Published on: Jan 24, 2025, 21:35:15 IST

By Rezaul H Laskar

Prefer HTon Google

Share via

Copy link

NEW DELHI: Diplomat Jitender Pal Singh, currently posted in the external affairs minister’s office, was on Friday named India’s new envoy to Israel.

JP Singh, an officer of the 2002 batch of the Indian Foreign Service (IFS), has served in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Turkey. (Photo courtesy: vifindia.org)

Singh, who also headed the crucial Pakistan-Afghanistan-Iran division in the external affairs ministry since 2020, is expected to take up the new assignment shortly, an official statement said.

The position of envoy to Tel Aviv is one of the most important diplomatic assignments in West Asia, given India’s growing strategic and technology ties with Israel, which is home to more than 32,000 Indian nationals. Singh will take up the post at a time when Israel and Hamas have agreed on a ceasefire to end 15 months of fighting triggered by the terror attacks of October 7, 2023.

Singh, an officer of the 2002 batch of the Indian Foreign Service (IFS), has served in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Turkey. He was India’s deputy high commissioner to Pakistan during 2014-2019, and was posted in Kabul during 2008-2012 when the Indian embassy was targeted in two terror attacks.

Besides playing a role in Track 1.5 engagements with the Pakistani side in recent years, Singh was the external affairs ministry’s pointperson for dealing with the Afghan Taliban regime in Kabul since the fall of the Ashraf Ghani government in 2021. Singh’s meetings with Taliban leaders paved the way for foreign secretary Vikram Misri’s meeting with the Taliban’s acting foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi in Dubai earlier this month.

The external affairs ministry also announced on Friday that Namrata S Kumar, an officer of the 1997 batch of the IFS and currently the ambassador to Slovenia, will be the next envoy to Latvia. She too is expected to take up her assignment shortly.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rezaul H Laskar
Rezaul Hasan Laskar is Foreign Editor with the Hindustan Times, which he joined in 2015. He began as a journalist in his hometown of Shillong in northeast India and has worked in newspapers and wire services over the years. He moved to New Delhi in 1997 and initially focused on defence, national security, Jammu and Kashmir and the northeast, while also working of foreign policy and international relations. He has been part of the media delegation accompanying PMs on foreign visits and has reported from destinations ranging from Tibet to Ukraine. Between 2007 and 2013, he was the Press Trust of India correspondent in Pakistan, one of only two Indian journalists allowed to report from the country. He extensively covered Pakistan’s domestic politics and the life of the common people, as well as the fallout of the 2008 Mumbai attacks on India-Pakistan relations and the subsequent trial in Pakistan of the suspects involved in the attack. As part of his reportage in Pakistan, he travelled the breadth of the country, from the Swat Valley to Balochistan. Reza’s first gig in journalism was writing a weekly music column, and music – especially classic rock – remains a keen interest. He is also a movie buff and a keen photographer.Read More

Get the latest India News, breaking headlines and real-time updates from across the country. Stay informed about politics, government policies, crime, weather major national developments and Karnataka Bandh LIVE.