Positive about Indo-US relations, says Donald Trump as new envoy takes charge

In a statement, the Indian Embassy said President Trump had fondly recalled during his conversation with Taranjit Singh Sandhu his friendship with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and their several interactions.

Updated on: Feb 7, 2020, 11:34:21 IST

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | By Shishir Gupta

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Taranjit Singh Sandhu, Indian Ambassador to the United States presented his credentials to President Donald Trump on Thursday. In the brief meeting that followed, President Trump welcomed Sandhu - a veteran of India-US ties with experience of dealing with the relationship spanning decades - to Washington DC and wished him success.

Taranjit Singh Sandhu, Indian Ambassador to the United States with President Donald Trump on Thursday. (@SandhuTaranjitS/Twitter Photo)

President Trump was very positive about Indo-US relations in the run-up to his visit to India. President Trump’s visit is expected to be anywhere between 23 and 27 Feb, with an event in Ahmedabad. There has, however, not been any confirmation of the dates yet.

In a statement, the Indian Embassy said President Trump had fondly recalled during his conversation with Taranjit Singh Sandhu his friendship with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and their several interactions. Sandhu spoke about PM Modi’s vision and guidance that had helped move relations between the two countries towards greater strategic convergence.

Sandhu, one of the most experienced Indian diplomats on US affairs, has had two stints in the United States. He was the Deputy Chief of Mission in Washington DC from July 2013 to January 2017. Earlier, he was First Secretary (Political) at the Embassy of India, Washington DC responsible for liaison with the United States Congress from 1997 to 2000. He has also served at the Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations, New York from July 2005 to February 2009.

An alumnus of St. Stephens’ College and Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi, Taranjit Singh Sandhu was born in a family of educationists. His father, Late Sardar Bishan Singh Samundri was the founder vice chancellor of Guru Nanak Dev University Amritsar.

There is, however, a little-known facet of Taranjit Singh Sandhu. He also inherits a rich Sikh legacy.

Taranjit Singh Sandhu’s grandfather Late Sardar Teja Singh Samundri was an Akali icon leader, founded the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, or SGPC, and played an important role in the gurdwara reform movement.

Sardar Teja Singh Samundri, who was also a freedom fighter, died in Lahore jail in 1926.

It was to honour the key role that Sardar Teja Singh Samundri had played for the community that the building that houses the SGPC headquarters was named in his honour. Teja Singh Samundri Hall is the only building in the Golden Temple’s Darbar Sahib complex that has been named after a Sikh leader. The other buildings in the complex are named after Sikh gurus.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Shishir Gupta
Shishir Gupta is Executive Editor at Hindustan Times and one of India's top journalists covering national security, strategic affairs, foreign policy and geopolitics. Over the past three decades, he has extensively reported on India's military, diplomatic and security landscape, covering every major conflict and national security challenge, from the 1999 Kargil War and the 2020 East Ladakh standoff to Operation Sindoor in 2025. He has also covered major terror attacks, including the IC-814 hijacking, the 26/11 Mumbai attacks and the 2025 Pahalgam terror strike, along with numerous Pakistan-backed terrorist incidents in the Kashmir Valley and across India. He has reported on national and state elections for more than three decades. A recognised authority on strategic affairs, Gupta has covered India's nuclear programme since the Pokhran-II (Shakti series) tests in May 1998 and has written extensively on global nuclear issues, Indian diplomacy and the country's expanding global outreach. He has also reported widely on international conflicts and terrorism, with a special focus on the Indian subcontinent. Gupta has interviewed Prime Minister Narendra Modi more than four times, including Modi's first interview with the print media after becoming Prime Minister in May 2014. His other interviews include three with the Dalai Lama, as well as conversations with Benjamin Netanyahu, Amit Shah, Yogi Adityanath, S. Jaishankar, Nirmala Sitharaman and Piyush Goyal. He is the author of Indian Mujahideen: The Enemy Within (Hachette, 2011) and Himalayan Face-off: Chinese Assertion and Indian Riposte (Hachette, 2014). He was awarded the Chevening-Wolfson Joint Scholarship at Wolfson College, University of Cambridge, UK, in 1998 and participated in the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) of the US State Department in 2006. He received the Ben Gurion Prize from Israel in 2011 and the K. Subrahmanyam Prize for Strategic Studies in 2015 from the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA). Since 2024, he has hosted Point Blank, Hindustan Times' weekly YouTube show on global geopolitics.Read More

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