BEIJING, May 4 : India’s new envoy to China Vikram Doraiswami commenced his tenure on Monday by paying floral tributes to statues of Mahatma Gandhi and Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore in Beijing.
Doraiswami arrived in Beijing on Sunday to take up his new assignment and was accorded a warm welcome by senior Chinese and Indian officials.
“Shri Vikram Doraiswami commenced his assignment as Ambassador of India to China by paying floral tributes to Mahatma Gandhi at Jintai Art Museum in Chaoyang Park,” the Indian Embassy said in a post on X.
He was accompanied by the Museum’s Curator, Yuan Xikun.
“Ambassador also paid tributes to Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore at the Embassy,” it said.
He earlier arrived in Shanghai on Saturday to take up his posting amid expectations that his appointment would add momentum to the current normalisation process of relations between the two countries.
Deputy Director, Asia Department of the Chinese Foreign Ministry Li Jianbo and Charge d’Affairs of the Indian Embassy Angeline Premalatha, along with senior officials of the Indian mission, received Doraiswami upon his arrival from Shanghai, officials said.
Doraiswami, a 1992-batch Indian Foreign Service officer, succeeds Pradeep Kumar Rawat.
Before his posting to Beijing, Doraiswami served as India’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom.
The 56-year-old diplomat’s appointment in March evoked considerable interest in the Chinese official media and the Chinese strategic community.
Doraiswami, a Mandarin speaker, had served at both the Hong Kong and Beijing diplomatic missions early in his career.
He was posted as Third Secretary in Hong Kong, where he earned an elective diploma in Chinese from the New Asia Yale-in-Asia Language School before moving to Beijing in September 1996 for a four-year tenure.
Doraiswami’s appointment comes amid efforts by India and China to rebuild relations that came under severe strain following the military standoff in eastern Ladakh in April 2020, which stretched on for four years.
The two countries are currently in the process of normalising relations on all fronts, including the resumption of visas and direct flight services. (PTI)
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