As new envoy to China, Pradeep Rawat has his hands full

New Delhi, Nov 15: Former head of the East division in the Ministry of External Affairs and China expert, Pradeep Kumar Rawat is expected to take over as the new Indian envoy to Beijing.

The 1990 batch Indian Foreign Service officer will assumed the post as Vikram Misri is retiring to New Delhi as a secretary. Rawat is an expert on China apart from being fluent in Mandarin.

Currently an envoy to the Netherlands, Rawat has spent a majority of his career in China or handling Beijing from New Delhi. He was joint secretary (East Asia) between 2014 and 2019 and later posted to Indonesia as an ambassador from 2017 to 2020.

His posting is important as it comes at a time when tensions between New Delhi and Beijing are at an all time high. Rawat's appointment is important as he has complete knowledge on the bilateral relationship with China. He has also worked as East Asia Division head when current External Affairs Minister, S Jaishankar was the foreign secretary.

Those who have worked with Rawat tell OneIndia that he is calm by nature and has extensive knowledge on the bilateral relations between India and China.

Misri on the other hand had a challenging tenure as envoy to Beijing. He handled the Ladakh crisis well and had provided his expertise on the bilateral between the two countries. With China watchers saying that the complex relations between the two countries will take time to ease out, Rawat's expertise will be put to test.