India’s Ethiopia envoy is new MEA spokesperson

NEW DELHI: The government on Friday designated Anurag Srivastava, the current Ambassador to Ethiopia, as the new spokesperson of the external affairs ministry. He succeeds Raveesh Kumar.

Srivastava had earlier served in Sri Lanka and Geneva and also in the external publicity wing of the external affairs ministry. He has a postgraduate diploma in diplomatic studies and had worked in the corporate sector before joining the Indian Foreign Service (IFS).

ET was the first to report that Srivastava was one of two officers in the reckoning for the post.


Among other new appointments in the ministry, the Pakistan-Afghanistan-Iran (PAI) and North (Nepal-Bhutan) divisions will have new officers as heads. Both divisions are critical to India’s Neighbourhood First policy and overall foreign policy outreach.

India’s current Consul General in Istanbul, JP Singh, who in the past had served in both Afghanistan and Pakistan, could head the PAI division, sources said. Piyush Srivastava, the current head of North division, could be India’s next envoy to Bahrain.