French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian congratulates new Indian counterpart S Jaishankar

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian on Friday congratulated S Jaishankar for taking over as the External Affairs Minister and said he was looking forward to deepening of bilateral ties.

"Congratulations to my new colleague @DrSjaishankar! I'm delighted to meet him again soon to prepare together the @G7 summit," he tweeted. "I'm looking forward to deepening the bilateral relation between France and India for a renewed multilateralism, a safer and more sustainable world," he added in his tweet. 

Read: Modi Cabinet 2.0: S Jaishankar Is The New Minister Of External Affairs; Full Portfolio List Of The Second Narendra Modi-led NDA Government Out

Earlier, Chinese Foreign Minister and State Councillor Wang Yi also congratulated S Jaishankar.

"We congratulate Mr Jaishankar on his appointment as foreign minister of India," a late-night press release from the Chinese Foreign Ministry said. 

As foreign secretary of India and ambassador to China, he has made positive contributions to the development of China-India relations, it said.

"China is ready to work with India to implement the consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries and promote new progress in China-India relations and pragmatic cooperation in various fields to bring more benefits to the people of both countries,".

Former Foreign Secretary Dr Subrahmanyam Jaishankar has been appointed as the new Minister of External Affairs in the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Cabinet 2.0. 

A  Padma Shri awardee by President Ram Nath Kovind, Jaishankar has served as foreign secretary in January 2015, after PM Modi dismissed the foreign secretary Sujatha Singh. He has been the country's longest-serving foreign secretary in four decades and helped craft much of PM Modi's foreign policy.

A former ambassador to China, Jaishankar had played a key role in resolving the crisis following the incursion in Ladakh's Depsang and the 73 days long Doklam stand-off, handling the tough negotiations with Beijing. He is credited to end the Chinese policy of issuing stapled visas to Indians from Jammu and Kashmir in 2010. He was also an Indian ambassador to Washington when Prime Minister Modi visited the US for the first time.