Pradeep K Rawat appointed as new envoy to China

New Delhi, Dec 20: Pradeep Kumar Rawat, presently India’s ambassador to the Netherlands, has been appointed as the next envoy to China.  Rawat, an IFS of 1990 batch, succeeds Vikram Misri.
He is expected to take up the assignment shortly, the MEA announced.
His appointment comes amid the continuing border stand-off with China in eastern Ladakh.
During his tenure as India’s ambassador to Netherlands, Rawat was also the Permanent Representative of India to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and responsible for India’s relations with the International Court of Justice, the Permanent Court of Arbitration and other legal institutions in The Hague.
He opted to learn Mandarin Chinese as his foreign language and served in Hong Kong and Beijing between 1992 and 1997. He returned to Delhi in 1997 and served in the East Asia Division for over three years. He then served as First Secretary in the Indian Mission in Mauritius.
He started his second tenure in Beijing in 2003 as Counsellor and ended in 2007 as Deputy Chief of Mission.
Rawat returned to the Ministry of External Affairs and worked as Director (East Asia) in East Asia Division between 2007 and 2009 and thereafter he was on deputation to South Asian University for 10 months.
He later served as Joint Secretary (East Asia) in the Ministry of External Affairs, New Delhi from 2014 to 2017.
Rawat served as Ambassador of India to Indonesia and Timor-Leste from September 2017-December 2020.
He speaks fluent Chinese.
In another appointment, Anindya Banerjee (YOA: 2006), presently Assistant High Commissioner of India to Chittagong, has been appointed as the next High Commissioner to the Republic of Cameroon.
He is expected to take up the assignment shortly.