New Delhi: The government on Monday announced that it has appointed 1993-batch Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer Santosh Jha as the next Ambassador to Belgium.
Presently, he is the ambassador of India to Uzbekistan and will also be accredited as ambassador to the European Union, the Ministry of External Affairs said in a release.
He is expected to take up the assignment shortly, it added.
Prior to assuming charge in Tashkent, he was Deputy Chief of Mission in the rank of an Ambassador at the Indian Embassy in Washington DC.
Ambassador Jha has served in different capacities in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in New Delhi and in India’s Mission abroad, including in Moscow, Vladivostok, New York, Brussels and Colombo.
Between 2004-2007, serving in the Americas Division in the MEA, Ambassador Jha was a member of the negotiating team for the India-US nuclear deal and was closely associated with the development of India-US relations in the field of space, defence and high technology.
Between 2013 and 2017, he held different positions, heading MEA’s Divisions for relationships with Western Europe, Human Resources and Management Affairs.
Subsequently, in April 2015, he was assigned the task of rebuilding India’s Policy Planning Division into an institution capable of responding to India’s growing global engagements.
