• March 20, 2026

P. Kumaran to be New Indian High Commissioner in London; Vikram Doraiswami Heads to China

LONDON March 20: Vikram Doraiswami, currently India’s High Commissioner to the UK, has been appointed as India’s next Ambassador to China as part of a major diplomatic reshuffle. He is expected to take up the assignment shortly.

Vikram Doraiswami will replace Pradeep Kumar Rawat in Beijing at a time when India and China are working to stabilise relations following the prolonged border standoff in eastern Ladakh.

In another key appointment, P. Kumaran, currently Secretary (East) in the MEA, will take over as India’s High Commissioner to London. Pranay Verma, the current High Commissioner to Bangladesh, has been posted to Brussels. His move leaves the Dhaka position vacant, with the possibility of a political appointee not being ruled out.

Additional changes include Puneet Agarwal being appointed to Thailand, while Nagesh Singh will move from Thailand to Australia.

Doraiswami, who joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1992, briefly worked as a journalist before entering diplomacy. He holds a master’s degree in history from Delhi University.

He began his diplomatic career as Third Secretary in Hong Kong in 1994, where he also completed a diploma in Chinese language studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He later served in Beijing from 1996 to 2000.

Over the years, Doraiswami has held several important positions, including Deputy Chief of Protocol, and later served in the Prime Minister’s Office as Private Secretary to the Prime Minister.

He has also headed the SAARC Division in the MEA, served as Joint Secretary (Americas), and held ambassadorial roles in Uzbekistan and South Korea. Between 2018 and 2019, he led the Bangladesh and Myanmar division and helped establish the Indo-Pacific division in the ministry.

He served as India’s High Commissioner to Bangladesh from October 2020 before taking up his role in the United Kingdom.