New Delhi
31 August 2006
The government on Thursday appointed Shiv Shankar Menon as the
new foreign secretary. The 57-year-old officer of the 1972 batch of Indian Foreign Service
(IFS) is currently India's High Commissioner to Islamabad. He will succeed Shyam
Saran, who has been named Prime Minister's special envoy to conduct the negotiations
on the proposed India-United States civilian nuclear energy agreement till it is signed
into law by the George W Bush Administration.
Decks have been cleared now for the appointment of a Union Minister of External Affairs
with the appointment of Mr Shyam Saran as special envoy. Mr Saran, who will retire on
September 30, will report directly to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The Prime
Minister decided not to appoint a full-fledged Cabinet minister after Mr K Natwar Singh
resigned in December last year. He chose to keep the external affairs portfolio with him
till the nuclear deal made considerable progress.
A press release issued on Thursday by the Prime Minister's Office read, "Shri Shiv
Shankar Menon, presently India's High Commissioner to Pakistan, will be the next
Foreign Secretary of India. He will take charge from the 1st October 2006. Shri Shyam
Saran will be the Special Envoy for the negotiations relating to the Indo-US Nuclear
Agreement." Menon supersedes over 13 officers. Saran too had superseded six officers
when he was appointed foreign secretary in 2004.
Among the IFS officers Menon supersedes are Secretary (West) Shashi U Tripathi and
Secretary (East) Rajiv Sikri. Tripathi and Sikri are officers of the 1970 batch of IFS. Others
senior to Menon are TCA Rangachari, Atish Sinha, PS Haer and Arun Kumar (all from the
1970 batch) and Veena Sikri, SS Mukherjee, Navrekha Sharma, Amitabh Tripathi and
Parthasarathy Ray (all belonging to the 1971 batch). Menon will have a nearly three-year
tenure at the helm of the foreign service.
Menon has served as the Indian envoy to China, Japan, Sri Lanka, Israel and Austria. He
served in China twice, from 1974 to 1977 and from 1986 to 1989. His career also
includes a stint as an advisor to the Atomic Energy Commission. Menon, who did his
Masters in history from Delhi University, speaks Chinese and German and is known for
his love of classical music and mountaineering. He took over as New Delhi's envoy in
Islamabad in July 2003. He is an alumnus of Scindia School.
According to sources, India's ambassador to China Nalin Suri is likely to succeed Menon
as India's high commissioner to Islamabad. Incidentally, Menon's counterpart in India,
Pakistan's High Commissioner to New Delhi Aziz Ahmad Khan, is expected to be
replaced too. The names of Pakistan's high commissioner to Canada Shahid Malik and
Zamir Akram are doing the rounds. Certain Pakistani media reports however suggested
Khan could be given an extension.
The civilian nuclear cooperation deal is yet to be approved by the US Congress. The
deal has been approved by the US House of Representatives while the Senate is
due to vote on it next month. It then needs to be jointly approved by the two Houses and
also get the backing of the Nuclear Suppliers Group. Some US lawmakers have sought to
introduce changes to the proposed legislation but New Delhi has warned Washington
that tinkering with the pact could destroy it.
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