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Ashok Kumar, presently High Commissioner, High Commission of India, Lusaka, Zambia, has been appointed as the next Ambassador of India to the Republic of Belarus, a statement by the Ministry of External Affairs said.
Kumar is expected to take up the assignment shortly, the statement added. He joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1998. He began the course of his diplomatic career in the Embassy of India, Syria during 2000-2003, where he learnt his compulsory foreign language Arabic and worked as Second Secretary. Later, he was posted to the Consulate General of India, Jeddah in 2004, where he handled Commercial and Community Welfare Departments, as per High Commission of India to Zambia. He returned to Headquarters, New Delhi in 2006 and was deployed as Deputy Secretary in the East and Southern Africa Division where he was given responsibility to handle EAC, COMESA and SADC and development cooperation projects. Later, he moved to the Integrated Finance Division of the Ministry of External Affairs, the statement added. His next overseas assignment was in the Embassy of India, Berlin where he served as First Secretary and Counsellor (Economic and Commerce) from 2009 to 2013. He was appointed as Deputy High Commissioner to the High Commission of India, Mauritius in 2013 and he served till 2017. After his diplomatic stint in Mauritius, he rejoined the Ministry of External Affairs, New Delhi and served as Joint Secretary (Hindi and Sanskrit) during 2018-2019. During his assignment in New Delhi, he was appointed as the first resident Ambassador of India to Djibouti, where he was entrusted with the responsibility to establish the mission. He was also given additional responsibility to supervise the Embassy of India in Sana'a and its Camp office in Djibouti. During his nearly 23 years in Indian Foreign Service, he has handled many important assignments and responsibilities, noticeable was his association with Ist and IInd India-Africa Forum Summits held in New Delhi (2008) and in Addis Ababa (2011) and also in organization of the 10th and 11th World Hindi Conferences held in Bhopal (2015) and Mauritius (2018). Kumar is an alumnus of University of Delhi where he studied B.Sc. (Hons) Geology, MSc (Applied Geology) and earned an MPhil in Engineering Geology. (ANI)
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