The Hindu : International : Nirupama Rao presents credentials to Chandrika

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Saturday, Sep 18, 2004

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International

Nirupama Rao presents credentials to Chandrika

By V.S. Sambandan

COLOMBO, SEPT. 17. India's first woman High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, Nirupama Rao, today presented her credentials to the Sri Lankan President, Chandrika Kumaratunga.

Ms. Rao, a career diplomat, who joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1973, served as Ambassador to Peru between 1995 and 1998 and Deputy Chief of Mission in Moscow (1998-1999) "is the 21st Indian envoy to the island-nation. She succeeds Nirupam Sen, who was recently appointed as India's Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York.

Second posting

Ms. Rao, who had served in the island-nation between 1981 and 1983 as the First Secretary (Agreement), is in her second posting under different circumstances compared to the pre-1983 situation, particularly after India's involvement in ushering in peace to the island in the 1980s.

While bilateral political ties are centred largely on India's views on the conflict-resolution process, at the economic front the two countries are working on a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement.

Bilateral trade ties have soared following the Free Trade Agreement signed in 1999 and operationalised a couple of years ago.

Defence ties pact

At the defence level, Sri Lanka was lifted from the Indian negative list for supplying military hardware after the 2002 ceasefire agreement between Colombo and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Efforts are also on for a bilateral defence co-operation pact.

India's former High Commissioners in Sri Lanka include the former President, the late V.V. Giri, the first Indian envoy in Colombo (1947-1951), "the National Security Adviser, J.N. Dixit (1985-1989), the High Commissioner to Pakistan, Shivshankar Menon (1997-2000), the Ambassador to Norway, Gopalkrishna Gandhi (2000-2002), former diplomats, K.P.S. Menon (1968-1970), Thomas Abraham (1978-1982) and Nareshwar Dayal (1993-1997).

A post-graduate in English Literature, Ms. Rao was a Fellow at the Centre for International Affairs at the Harvard University, specialising in Asia-Pacific Security and a Distinguished International Executive in Residence at the University of Maryland, in the U.S. She had also served as Minister in-charge of Press Affairs at the Indian Embassy in Washington.

Among her postings in New Delhi, Ms. Rao was the first woman Official Spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (June 2001-October 2002), Desk Officer at Southern African and Nepal desks and has specialised on Indo-China relations at the East Asia Division.

Ms. Rao is married to Sudhakar Rao, a senior civil servant in the Indian Administrative Service.

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