An IFS officer of 2002 batch, J P Singh has been appointed as next Indian ambassador to Israel. He’s expected to take up his new assignment shortly, said the MEA in an announcement.
Singh is currently heading as joint secretary the Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran (PAI) division of the MEA. He has served in the past as deputy chief of mission in Islamabad and is considered an expert of affairs related to Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Singh has also served in Kabul. As joint secretary, he played the lead role in India’s outreach to the Taliban after the armed militia took control of Afghanistan again in 2021 and has visited Kabul several times in the past few years. These efforts finally led to foreign secretary Vikram Misri’s meeting with Taliban’s acting foreign minister recently in Dubai, in a sign of India’s improving ties with the dispensation in Kabul.
Singh has also served as India’s consul general in Istanbul. He will lead the Indian mission in Israel amid the resent spike in tensions in West Asia that followed the war in Gaza. In a balancing act, India has continued to strongly defend Israel’s right to defend itself from acts of terrorism while condemning deaths of innocent civilians.
