Vikram Doraiswami appointed as next High Commissioner of India to United Kingdom

Indian diplomat Vikram K Doraiswami has been appointed as the next High Commissioner of India to the United Kingdom, the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement. The 1992 batch Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer, was serving as the High Commissioner of India to the People's Republic of Bangladesh. 

"He is expected to take up the assignment shortly," the External Affairs Ministry informed in the statement. 

Vikram K Doraisami India's next High Commissioner to United Kingdom

Doraiswami was earlier appointed as India's envoy to Bangladesh in August 2020. Notably, the seasoned diplomat had also served as an additional secretary in-charge of international organisations and summits at the headquarters of the Ministry of External Affairs in Delhi. He has served as Indian ambassador to Uzbekistan, South Korea and has served in the US as well as private secretary to Prime Minister.

The Indian diplomat's appointment came at a time when Britain’s prime ministerial candidate Rishi Sunak stated that he wants to change the UK-India relationship to make it a more two-way exchange that opens up easy access to UK students and companies in India.

"We know the UK-India relationship is important. We represent the living bridge between our two countries,” Sunak said during a campaign hustings event hosted by the Conservative Friends of India (CFIN) diaspora organisation in north London on Monday evening. "We are all very aware of the opportunity for the UK to sell things and do things in India, but actually we need to look at that relationship differently because there is an enormous amount that we here in the UK can learn from India," he was quoted by news agency PTI. 

Notably, the 42-year-old Rishi Sunak was born in UK’s Southampton area to an Indian family of a pharmacist mother and a National Health Service (NHS) general practitioner (GP) father. His grandparents were from Punjab.